An Australian company has developed an artificial intelligence product that works like a human brain.
Sydney-based tech company BrainChip’s AI chip responds to situations like a mind’s neural pathways and synapses.
The product requires low levels of power because it remains dormant until stimuli – hearing, seeing or sensing something – activates the device.
BrainChip was not attempting to compete with other chip companies like Nvidia – the world’s largest business – because it was not trying to create the most powerful chips, chief executive Sean Hehir said.
The product can operate on less than one watt of power.
“This company, founded on a vision from two founders, was about mimicking the human brain, which is the most efficient computational engine on the planet,” Mr Hehir told a briefing on Friday.
“There is virtually nobody in this market who can do the things that we can do.”
One medical company using BrainChip in a pair of glasses to track eye movement can predict epileptic seizures an hour in advance with 98 per cent accuracy.
“In the past, people with epilepsy … were afraid to drive because they were concerned about having a seizure,” Mr Hehir said.
“This creates a whole potential freedom of life.”
Australia has been pinned as the future data capital of the world due to its vast landscape and natural resources.
Economist Chris Richardson highlighted the country’s AI potential at a National AI Summit in Canberra in August.
“This opportunity is the largest I have seen in my life … we need to run at it with speed,” he told the summit.
However, the development of data centres in Australia has been stymied by legislation, community hurdles and the excessive energy resources required to run them.
BrainChip circumvented this problem, Mr Hehir said, because products using its chip did not require data centres and the internet.
This added privacy and security to products and has made BrainChip sought after in the defence sector.
“The defence world has changed dramatically … in a defence situation, you cannot afford to lose a network,” Mr Hehir said.
“You need to do your inference locally.”
Despite noting interest in BrainChip, investors raised questions on Friday about the company’s financial position, which Mr Hehir described as “lumpy”.
For the half year ended June 30, it lost $US12 million ($A17 million) – up from the $US9.4 million ($A13.1 million) loss recorded in the previous corresponding period.
BrainChip was trading about 13.5 cents on Friday, down 3.6 per cent, but has risen as high as 27 cents in the past year.
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