And you think that dramatically extended life is possible? “I think we’re only 15 years away from a tipping point in longevity, because up until very recently you could not make a plausibly sound argument where life could be indefinitely extended.” said Ray Kurzwell, who is out to build an artificial “Google Brain?” Kurzweil is perhaps the most prominent proselytizer of “hard AI,” which argues that it is possible to create consciousness in an artificial being. Google is becoming the most daring developer of AI, a fact that some may consider thrilling and others deeply unsettling. http://www.wired.com/business/2013/04/kurzweil-google-ai/   Now, Google wants to use the facility at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in California to find out how quantum computing might advance techniques of machine learning and artificial intelligence. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22554494

A $15m computer that uses “quantum physics” effects to boost its speed is to be installed at a Nasa facility.

It will be shared by Google, Nasa, and other scientists, providing access to a machine said to be up to 3,600 times faster than conventional computers.

Unlike standard machines, the D-Wave Two processor appears to make use of an effect called quantum tunnelling.

http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/513696/deep-learning/