Simplification and integration in computing and cognition: the SP theory and the multiple alignment concept

The main purpose of this article is to describe potential benefits and applications of the SP theory, a unique attempt to simplify and integrate ideas across artificial intelligence, mainstream computing and human cognition, with information compression as a unifying theme. The theory, including a concept of multiple alignment, combines conceptual simplicity with descriptive and explanatory power in several areas including representation of knowledge, natural language processing, pattern recognition, several kinds of reasoning, the storage and retrieval of information, planning and problem solving, unsupervised learning, information compression, and human perception and cognition. In the SP machine -- an expression of the SP theory which is currently realised in the form of computer models -- there is potential for an overall simplification of computing systems, including software. As a theory with a broad base of support, the SP theory promises useful insights in many areas and the integration of structures and functions, both within a given area and amongst different areas. There are potential benefits in natural language processing (with potential for the understanding and translation of natural languages), the need for a versatile intelligence in autonomous robots, computer vision, intelligent databases, maintaining multiple versions of documents or web pages, software engineering, criminal investigations, the management of big data and gaining benefits from it, the semantic web, medical diagnosis, the detection of computer viruses, the economical transmission of data, and data fusion. Further development of these ideas would be facilitated by the creation of a high-parallel, web-based, open-source version of the SP machine, with a good user interface. This would provide a means for researchers to explore what can be done with the system and to refine it.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figure

Proposal for the creation of a research facility for the development of the SP machine

This is a proposal to create a research facility for the development of a high-parallel version of the "SP machine", based on the "SP theory of intelligence". We envisage that the new version of the SP machine will be an open-source software virtual machine, derived from the existing "SP computer model", and hosted on an existing high-performance computer. It will be a means for researchers everywhere to explore what can be done with the system and to create new versions of it. The SP system is a unique attempt to simplify and integrate observations and concepts across artificial intelligence, mainstream computing, mathematics, and human perception and cognition, with information compression as a unifying theme. Potential benefits and applications include helping to solve problems associated with big data; facilitating the development of autonomous robots; unsupervised learning, natural language processing, several kinds of reasoning, fuzzy pattern recognition at multiple levels of abstraction, computer vision, best-match and semantic forms of information retrieval, software engineering, medical diagnosis, simplification of computing systems, and the seamless integration of diverse kinds of knowledge and diverse aspects of intelligence. Additional motivations include the potential of the SP system to help solve problems in defence, security, and the detection and prevention of crime; potential in terms of economic, social, environmental, and academic criteria, and in terms of publicity; and the potential for international influence in research. The main elements of the proposed facility are described, including support for the development of "SP-neural", a neural version of the SP machine. The facility should be permanent in the sense that it should be available for the foreseeable future, and it should be designed to facilitate its use by researchers anywhere in the world.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1508.04087. substantial text overlap with arXiv:1409.802

The SP theory of intelligence: distinctive features and advantages

This paper highlights distinctive features of the "SP theory of intelligence" and its apparent advantages compared with some AI-related alternatives. Distinctive features and advantages are: simplification and integration of observations and concepts; simplification and integration of structures and processes in computing systems; the theory is itself a theory of computing; it can be the basis for new architectures for computers; information compression via the matching and unification of patterns and, more specifically, via multiple alignment, is fundamental; transparency in the representation and processing of knowledge; the discovery of 'natural' structures via information compression (DONSVIC); interpretations of mathematics; interpretations in human perception and cognition; and realisation of abstract concepts in terms of neurons and their inter-connections ("SP-neural"). These things relate to AI-related alternatives: minimum length encoding and related concepts; deep learning in neural networks; unified theories of cognition and related research; universal search; Bayesian networks and more; pattern recognition and vision; the analysis, production, and translation of natural language; Unsupervised learning of natural language; exact and inexact forms of reasoning; representation and processing of diverse forms of knowledge; IBM's Watson; software engineering; solving problems associated with big data, and in the development of intelligence in autonomous robots. In conclusion, the SP system can provide a firm foundation for the long-term development of AI, with many potential benefits and applications. It may also deliver useful results on relatively short timescales. A high-parallel, open-source version of the SP machine, derived from the SP computer model, would be a means for researchers everywhere to explore what can be done with the system, and to create new versions of it

Autonomous robots and the SP theory of intelligence

This article is about how the "SP theory of intelligence" and its realisation in the "SP machine" (both outlined in the article) may help to solve computer-related problems in the design of autonomous robots, meaning robots that do not depend on external intelligence or power supplies, are mobile, and are designed to exhibit as much human-like intelligence as possible. The article is about: how to increase the computational and energy efficiency of computers and reduce their bulk; how to achieve human-like versatility in intelligence; and likewise for human-like adaptability in intelligence. The SP system has potential for substantial gains in computational and energy efficiency and reductions in the bulkiness of computers: by reducing the size of data to be processed; by exploiting statistical information that the system gathers; and via an updated version of Donald Hebb's concept of a "cell assembly". Towards human-like versatility in intelligence, the SP system has strengths in unsupervised learning, natural language processing, pattern recognition, information retrieval, several kinds of reasoning, planning, problem solving, and more, with seamless integration amongst structures and functions. The SP system's strengths in unsupervised learning and other aspects of intelligence may help to achieve human-like adaptability in intelligence via: the learning of natural language; learning to see; building 3D models of objects and of a robot's surroundings; learning regularities in the workings of a robot and in the robot's environment; exploration and play; learning major skills; and secondary forms of learning. Also discussed are: how the SP system may process parallel streams of information; generalisation of knowledge, correction of over-generalisations, and learning from dirty data; how to cut the cost of learning; and reinforcements, motivations, goals, and demonstration

Information Upload and retrieval using SP Theory of Intelligence

In today's technology Cloud computing has become an important aspect and storing of data on cloud is of high importance as the need for virtual space to store massive amount of data has grown during the years. However time taken for uploading and downloading is limited by processing time and thus need arises to solve this issue to handle large data and their processing. Another common problem is de duplication. With the cloud services growing at a rapid rate it is also associated by increasing large volumes of data being stored on remote servers of cloud. But most of the remote stored files are duplicated because of uploading the same file by different users at different locations. A recent survey by EMC says about 75% of the digital data present on cloud are duplicate copies. To overcome these two problems in this paper we are using SP theory of intelligence using lossless compression of information, which makes the big data smaller and thus reduces the problems in storage and management of large amounts of data

Introduction to the SP theory of intelligence

This article provides a brief introduction to the "Theory of Intelligence" and its realisation in the "SP Computer Model". The overall goal of the SP programme of research, in accordance with long-established principles in science, has been the simplification and integration of observations and concepts across artificial intelligence, mainstream computing, mathematics, and human learning, perception, and cognition. In broad terms, the SP system is a brain-like system that takes in "New" information through its senses and stores some or all of it as "Old" information. A central idea in the system is the powerful concept of "SP-multiple-alignment", borrowed and adapted from bioinformatics. This the key to the system's versatility in aspects of intelligence, in the representation of diverse kinds of knowledge, and in the seamless integration of diverse aspects of intelligence and diverse kinds of knowledge, in any combination. There are many potential benefits and applications of the SP system. It is envisaged that the system will be developed as the "SP Machine", which will initially be a software virtual machine, hosted on a high-performance computer, a vehicle for further research and a step towards the development of an industrial-strength SP Machine

Interpreting Winograd Schemas Via the SP Theory of Intelligence and Its Realisation in the SP Computer Model

In 'Winograd Schema' (WS) sentences like "The city councilmen refused the demonstrators a permit because they feared violence" and "The city councilmen refused the demonstrators a permit because they advocated revolution", it is easy for adults to understand what "they" refers to but can be difficult for AI systems. This paper describes how the SP System -- outlined in an appendix -- may solve this kind of problem of interpretation. The central idea is that a knowledge of discontinuous associations amongst linguistic features, and an ability to recognise such patterns of associations, provides a robust means of determining what a pronoun like "they" refers to. For any AI system to solve this kind of problem, it needs appropriate knowledge of relevant syntax and semantics which, ideally, it should learn for itself. Although the SP System has some strengths in unsupervised learning, its capabilities in this area are not yet good enough to learn the kind of knowledge needed to interpret WS examples, so it must be supplied with such knowledge at the outset. However, its existing strengths in unsupervised learning suggest that it has potential to learn the kind of knowledge needed for the interpretation of WS examples. In particular, it has potential to learn the kind of discontinuous association of linguistic features mentioned earlier

Application of the SP theory of intelligence to the understanding of natural vision and the development of computer vision

The SP theory of intelligence aims to simplify and integrate concepts in computing and cognition, with information compression as a unifying theme. This article discusses how it may be applied to the understanding of natural vision and the development of computer vision. The theory, which is described quite fully elsewhere, is described here in outline but with enough detail to ensure that the rest of the article makes sense. Low level perceptual features such as edges or corners may be identified by the extraction of redundancy in uniform areas in a manner that is comparable with the run-length encoding technique for information compression. The concept of multiple alignment in the SP theory may be applied to the recognition of objects, and to scene analysis, with a hierarchy of parts and sub-parts, and at multiple levels of abstraction. The theory has potential for the unsupervised learning of visual objects and classes of objects, and suggests how coherent concepts may be derived from fragments. As in natural vision, both recognition and learning in the SP system is robust in the face of errors of omission, commission and substitution. The theory suggests how, via vision, we may piece together a knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of objects and of our environment, it provides an account of how we may see things that are not objectively present in an image, and how we recognise something despite variations in the size of its retinal image. And it has things to say about the phenomena of lightness constancy and colour constancy, the role of context in recognition, and ambiguities in visual perception. A strength of the SP theory is that it provides for the integration of vision with other sensory modalities and with other aspects of intelligence.Comment: 40 pages, 16 figure

Problems in AI research and how the SP System may help to solve them

This paper describes problems in AI research and how the SP System may help to solve them. Most of the problems are described by leading researchers in AI in interviews with science writer Martin Ford, and reported by him in his book Architects of Intelligence. These problems, each with potential solutions via SP, are: how to overcome the divide between symbolic and non-symbolic kinds of knowledge and processing; eliminating large and unexpected errors in recognition; the challenge of unsupervised learning; the problem of generalisation, with under- and over-generalisation; learning from a single exposure or experience; the problem of transfer learning; how to create learning that is fast, economical in demands for data and computer resources; the problems of transparency in results and processing; problems in the processing of natural language; problems in the development of probabilistic reasoning; the problem of catastrophic forgetting; how to achieve generality across several aspects of AI. The SP System provides a relatively promising foundation for the development of artificial general intelligence

Transparency and granularity in the SP Theory of Intelligence and its realisation in the SP Computer Model

This chapter describes how the SP System, meaning the SP Theory of Intelligence, and its realisation as the SP Computer Model, may promote transparency and granularity in AI, and some other areas of application. The chapter describes how transparency in the workings and output of the SP Computer Model may be achieved via three routes: 1) the program provides a very full audit trail for such processes as recognition, reasoning, analysis of language, and so on. There is also an explicit audit trail for the unsupervised learning of new knowledge; 2) knowledge from the system is likely to be granular and easy for people to understand; and 3) there are seven principles for the organisation of knowledge which are central in the workings of the SP System and also very familiar to people (eg chunking-with-codes, part-whole hierarchies, and class-inclusion hierarchies), and that kind of familiarity in the way knowledge is structured by the system, is likely to be important in the interpretability, explainability, and transparency of that knowledge. Examples from the SP Computer Model are shown throughout the chapter.Comment: Accepted for publication as a chapter in the book Interpretable Artificial Intelligence: A Perspective of Granular Computing, to be published by Springer-Verlag and edited by Witold Pedrycz and Shyi-Ming Che