IBM is the first to create a microprocessor that is tentatively referring to as a brain chip given the fact that it is very close to replicating the diverse and intricate synaptic structure of the connections of the brain in a human body. The system is able to rewire its connections much like the way that biological synapses work making it one of the first starts to creating an actual brain chip for technological machines. Researchers believe that this feature may be the first start towards truly creating artificial intelligence and machines that are able to learn.
Outside of AI, the invention may have alternate uses as cognitive computers could also be used to help with environmental monitoring and for understanding the way that humans behave. IBM project leader, Dharmednra Modha, stated that the focus of the project was to recreate different aspects of the mind such as sensation, emotion, cognition, and perception by attempting to engineer the brain in reverse. The system uses two computer chips that both have 256 computational cores which are essentially the technology counterpoint to neurons in the human brain. Each chip also contains over 260,000 programmable synapses and 65,000 learning synapses.