Jeff Hawkins: Where Open Source And Machine Learning Meet Big Data

The Palm pioneer has turned to neuroscience and big data to create a path to truly intelligent machines -- a path open to the community's contributions

At OSCON in Portland, Ore., last month, I had the chance to meet Jeff Hawkins, the inventor of the Palm Pilot and arguably the father of the smartphone. I learned that he is now pioneering the analysis of huge streams of real-time data using insights gained as a neuroscientist. His company offers a product that can learn the characteristics of data streams, predict their future actions, and identifiy anomalies.

He has just recently taken the core of that product and released it as a GPLv3-licensed open source project on GitHub so that anyone can build machine intelligence into their systems. Below is a video of our discussion, followed by an edited version of the interview.