Brainpower Labs

Original Company Overview

(The following is the original company description written in 2008, also available on archive.org).


Brainpower Labs LLC, founded in 2008 by Tyler Streeter, is a software development company with the goal of producing advanced artificial intelligence software based on the architecture of the mammalian brain. We believe that human-like artificial intelligence is both important and achievable.

Advanced AI is Important

A machine with human-like intelligence, designed in a safe, responsible manner, would be an extremely useful invention. Possibly even the most useful. Imagine mass-producing intelligent "artificial scientists" who tirelessly analyze our data, discover patterns, make predictions, and compute optimal decisions for us. Such machines would provide astounding benefits, especially considering that their productivity would scale with Moore's law. Thus, if we can solve the problem of general AI, we automatically get a phenomenal boost in our ability to solve our other problems.

Advanced AI is Achievable

We believe that the basic tools needed to create human-like AI are available today. There is still a lot of work to be done, but most of it is engineering work, not creating fundamentally new algorithms. The necessary elements include theoretical/mathematical knowledge (unsupervised pattern recognition, information theory, neural networks, probabilistic belief representation, and decision theory), biological knowledge (neural physiology, network-level brain models, and systems-level brain models), modern programming languages and software engineering techniques, and parallel computer hardware (cheap multi-core CPUs and 3D graphics cards). By combining these tools in sophisticated ways and by developing a comprehensive testing process, we think it is possible to create an intelligent software brain. Once implanted into a physical body, this software intelligence could "grow up" in our world, learn the meaning of things from experience, understand our values, and help solve our problems.

Our Plan

We are currently designing, implementing, and testing our intelligence architecture, the Sapience Engine. This work is based largely on Tyler's PhD dissertation work ("Brain-inspired Artificial General Intelligence," in progress) which represents over four years of ongoing research. (See more details here.) When the initial version of this software product is ready, we plan to bring it to market by working with various partners in the robotics, video games, and related industries.

The company is currently increasing initial funds through iPhone app development. Please contact us if you are interested in providing funding towards our long-term goal.