Science & Technology

To 'democratize' AI, make it work more like a human brain

Daniel William Strain — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 19:57:51 +0000

To 'democratize' AI, make it work more like a human brain Daniel William… Thu, 06/05/2025 - 13:57

Daniel Strain

Credit: Adobe Stock

Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, AI platforms based on a computer science approach called “deep learning” have spread to every corner of society—they’re in your emails, on recipe sites and in social media posts from politicians.

That popularity, however, has also brought an unexpected twist, said Alvaro Velasquez, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at �� Boulder: The smarter AI gets, the less accessible it becomes.

According to one estimate, Google spent nearly $190 million training its latest chatbot, known as Gemini. That price tag doesn’t include the computer chips, labor and maintenance to keep Gemini running 24/7. AI platforms also come with a hefty environmental toll. Around the world, AI data centers produce nearly 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions.

These factors are putting AI out of reach of all but the largest corporations, Velasquez said

“Historically, there was a much more level playing field in AI,” he said. “Now, these models are so expensive that you have to be a big tech company to get into the industry.”

In a paper published last month in the journal PNAS Nexus, he and his colleagues say that an approach known as neurosymbolic AI could help to “democratize” the field.

Embraced by a growing number of computer scientists, neurosymbolic AI seeks to mimic some of the complex and (occasionally) logical ways that humans think.

The strategy has been around in some form or another since the 1980s. But the new paper suggests that neurosymbolic AI could help to shrink the size, and cost, of AI platforms thousands of times over—putting these tools within the grasp of a lot more people.

“Biology has shown us that efficient learning is possible,” said Velasquez, who until recently served as a program manager for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). “Humans don’t need the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars of computing power to learn.”

Alvaro Velasquez

Dogs and cats

To understand how neurosymbolic AI works, it first helps to know how engineers build AI models like ChatGPT or Gemini—which rely on a computer architecture known as a “neural network.”

In short, you need a ton of data.

Velasquez gives a basic example of an AI platform that can tell the difference between dogs and cats. If you want to build such a model, you first have to train it by giving it millions of photos of dogs and cats. Over time, your system may be able to label a brand-new photo, say of a Weimaraner wearing a bow tie. It doesn’t know what a dog or a cat is, but it can learn the patterns behind what those animals look like.

The approach can be really effective, Velasquez said, but it also has major limitations.

“If you undertrain your model, the neural network is going to get stuck,” he said. “The naïve solution is you just keep throwing more and more data and computing power at it until, eventually, it gets out of it.”

He and his colleagues think that neurosymbolic AI could get around those hurdles.

Here’s how: You still train your model on data, but you also program it with “symbolic” knowledge, or some of the fundamental rules that govern our world. That might include a detailed description of the anatomy of mammals, the laws of thermodynamics or the logic behind effective human rhetoric. Theoretically, if your AI has a firm grounding in logic and reasoning, it will learn faster and with a lot fewer data.

Not found in nature

One place that could work really well is in the realm of biology, Velasquez said.

Say you want to design an AI model that could discover a brand new kind of cancer drug. Deep learning models would likely struggle to do that—in large part because programmers could only train those models using datasets of molecules that already exist in nature.

“Now, we want that AI to discover a highly novel biology—something that doesn’t exist in nature,” Velasquez said. “That AI model is not going to produce that novel molecule because it’s well outside the distribution of data it was trained on.”

But, using a neurosymbolic approach, programmers could build an AI that grasps the laws of chemistry and physics. It could then draw on those laws to, in a way, imagine what a new kind of cancer medication might look like.

The idea sounds simple, but in practice, it’s devilishly hard to do. In part, that’s because logical rules and neural networks run on completely different computer architectures. Getting the two to talk to each other isn’t easy.

Despite the challenges, Velasquez envisions a future where AI isn’t something that only tech behemoths can afford.

“We’d like to return to the way AI used to be—where anyone could contribute to the state of the art and not have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.

Co-authors of the new paper include Neel Bhatt, Ufuk Topcu and Zhangyang Wang at the University of Texas at Austin; Katia Sycara, Simon Stepputtis at Carnegie Mellon University; Sandeep Neema at Vanderbilt University; and Gautam Vallabha at Johns Hopkins University.

The price tag for developing AI models like ChatGPT or Google's Gemini is climbing, putting these tools outside the reach of all but the biggest corporations. An approach called "neurosymbolic" AI could help, says �� Boulder computer scientist Alvaro Velasquez.

Traditional

White

Advancing super-strong and lightweight carbon-based materials

Megan Maneval — Fri, 30 May 2025 18:05:55 +0000

Advancing super-strong and lightweight carbon-based materials Megan Maneval Fri, 05/30/2025 - 12:05

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Materials researchers are getting a big boost from a new database created by a team led by Hendrik Heinz.

Traditional

White

Tiny robot team could be game-changer for safety inspections

Megan Maneval — Tue, 27 May 2025 20:39:12 +0000

Tiny robot team could be game-changer for safety inspections Megan Maneval Tue, 05/27/2025 - 14:39

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Assistant Professor Kaushik Jayaram, in collaboration with Laura Blumenschein, has received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a tiny robot super team capable of navigating a complex maze of machinery and squeeze through the tightest of spaces—like the guts of a jet engine—to potentially perform non-destructive evaluation faster, cheaper and better than ever before.

Traditional

White

Shaping the future of quantum systems

Megan Maneval — Wed, 21 May 2025 18:10:28 +0000

Shaping the future of quantum systems Megan Maneval Wed, 05/21/2025 - 12:10

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Ramin Ayanzadeh's research focuses on trustworthy quantum computing to enhance the reliability and security of quantum systems. To his knowledge, he's the only faculty member in the region who focuses on quantum software, systems and the architecture of quantum computers.

Traditional

White

AI ghosts are coming: Is that comforting or creepy?

Lisa Marshall — Tue, 20 May 2025 18:50:52 +0000

AI ghosts are coming: Is that comforting or creepy? Lisa Marshall Tue, 05/20/2025 - 12:50

Lisa Marshall

In 2019, a grieving mother named Jang Ji-Sun donned a virtual reality headset and was instantly transported to a grassy field where she spent 10 minutes playing with an AI version of her daughter, Na Yeon, who had died three years earlier of a rare blood disease.

The tearful reunion, viewed more than 36 million times on YouTube, offered a striking sneak peek at how technology might someday transform the way we interact with the dead.

Thanks to the advent of generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, and the emergence of AI “agents” created to act independently on behalf of their creators, that someday is here, according to new �� Boulder research. And the possibilities are even wilder than many imagined.

“We anticipate that within our lifetimes it may become common practice for people to create custom AI agents to interact with loved ones and the broader world after their death,” writes Jed Brubaker, professor of Information Science, in a new paper titled “Generative Ghosts: Anticipating Benefits and Risks of AI Afterlives.”

Information Science Professor Jed Brubaker

Brubaker has spent much of his career at the intersection of death and technology. His research inspired Facebook’s Legacy Contact, the feature which enables platform users to assign someone to manage their account after they die. In November, he launched the nation’s first Digital Legacy Clinic, which helps people get their digital affairs in order.

For his latest paper, co-authored with Google DeepMind researcher Meredith Ringel Morris, he set out to inventory what’s been done and what’s coming in the nascent “AI afterlives” space. Meanwhile, in his lab on campus, Brubaker and his students have begun beta testing their own "AI ghosts" and conducting experiments to test how people feel about them.

“Today, you might interact with a Facebook memorial page for grandpa after he dies,” he says. “But what would it feel like to actually sit down with grandpa by the fire and have a conversation with him?”

That day may not be far off.

From text-based grief bots to resurrected celebrities

As Brubaker notes, tech-savvy futurists have been dabbling with AI afterlives for years.

After Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed died in 2013, his partner Laurie Anderson worked with machine learning experts to create a text-based chatbot (trained with Reed’s writings, songs and interviews) that she could converse with. She still uses it frequently.

“I am totally, 100% addicted to this,” Anderson recently told The Guardian.

In 2023, surviving members of The Beatles used AI to release a new song “Now and Then” featuring the deceased John Lennon’s voice singing along with his bandmates.

Just last month, the family of a man shot dead in a road rage incident used AI to create a life-like avatar of him. During an emotional video played in the courtroom, the avatar forgave his killer.

Meanwhile, numerous startups now help the living create posthumous digital versions of themselves: After a lengthy 3D video and interview session, Re;memory will create a “highly realistic AI avatar” to leave behind for family members. HereAfter, an AI app, invites people to record audio stories that the “virtual you” can share after your death.

To some, this all sounds exceedingly creepy.

An AI Chris Pelke addresses his killer in court. Credit: YouTube

But Brubaker points out that photographs were once believed to steal a person’s soul, and online memorials—widely viewed as creepy a decade ago—are now everywhere.

“After time, what’s creepy often becomes commonplace,” he says.

The rise of generative ghosts

Brubaker is most intrigued about what’s coming next: He and his co-author term them “generative ghosts.”

Powered by large language models that can generate and understand human language, and other features that enable them to remember, plan and exhibit other complex human behaviors, they can do far more than regurgitate old stories fed to them by the once-living.

For instance, they could have a conversation with their kids about current events which occurred after their death, write a new song or poem (that their family could potentially earn royalties from), or even help their kids manage their estate.

Right now, most generative ghosts are rudimentary and text based. But ultimately, we could get very close to that candid chat with grandpa by the fire, Brubaker says.

“You could go interact with this super high-fidelity, interactive memorial and, instead of them just reading you some pre-scripted words, you could have an authentic conversation.”

Promise and peril

Brubaker also imagines a day when generative ghosts could be used therapeutically for someone struggling with prolonged grief over a lost loved one.

This was, in fact, the impetus for Jang Ji-Sung’s heart-wrenching reunion with her deceased daughter. (After three years of battling mental health issues, she worked with a South Korean TV network to create a 3D version of Nayeon she could bid a final farewell to.)

Jang Ji-Sung embraces an AI simulation of her daughter.

Generative ghosts could also be used in historical exhibits.

“The last generation of Holocaust survivors will not be with us for much longer, so museums are trying to think of rich, interactive ways to keep their stories alive,” says Brubaker.

Along with such promise, of course, comes peril.

How long should someone interact with an AI ghost before it becomes unhealthy? What role should they play, or not, in the courtroom? What happens when they are created accidentally (e.g., someone creates an AI “agent” to perform other tasks for them and then unexpectedly dies)? How can I be sure no one will make a ghost out of me, against my will?

And when and how should a generative ghost die?

Brubaker doesn’t have the answers. But he hopes his research will get tech companies and policymakers thinking.

“What’s possible and what will actually happen are two different things as we move forward in this AI world,” he says. “When it comes to AI afterlives, we hope to see things move forward in the most ethical, thoughtful and sensitive way possible.”

Within our lifetimes, it could be common for people to interact with life-like digital avatars of the dead. New research explores their promise and peril.

Traditional

South Korean mother Jang Ji-Sun interacts with an AI simulation of her late daughter, Na Yeon. Credit: MBC Media/YouTube

White

South Korean mother Jang Ji-Sun embraces an AI simulation of her late daughter, Na Yeon. Credit: MBC Media/YouTube

Disneyland for physicists: Breakthrough Prize honors scientists at world's largest particle collider

Daniel William Strain — Thu, 15 May 2025 15:52:13 +0000

Disneyland for physicists: Breakthrough Prize honors scientists at world's largest particle collider Daniel William… Thu, 05/15/2025 - 09:52

Daniel Strain

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accelerates particles through tunnels stretching roughly 17 miles underground. (Credit: CERN)

For these physicists at �� Boulder, searching for the unknown is a matter of speed.

Over the last decade, researchers on campus, including dozens of graduate and undergraduate students, have taken part in the hunt for never-before-seen physics at the Large Hadron Collider. The facility sits at the base of the mountains of Switzerland not far from Geneva. There, scientists accelerate tiny bits of matter to just below the speed of light, slamming these particles together to create spectacular bursts of energy.

To analyze collisions between particles, the CMS detector generates a magnetic field nearly 100,000 times more powerful than the magnetic field surrounding Earth. (Credit: CERN)

The ATLAS detector sits more than 300 feet underground and weighs more than 7,000 tons. (Credit: CERN)

Recently, their efforts received international recognition. In April, the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics went to four international collaborations working at the LHC, which is operated by an organization called CERN. These collaborations encompass thousands of scientists from around the globe, including 32 current and former physicists at �� Boulder. The Breakthrough Prize is an annual award celebrating “individuals who have made profound contributions to human knowledge.”

Researchers at �� Boulder have participated in two LHC collaborations, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) and A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS (ATLAS) experiments. They rely on detectors on site. These massive machines weigh thousands of tons each and analyze what happens when particles collide.

“The magnitude of what’s been accomplished by these teams is staggering,” said John Cumalat, a professor of physics at �� Boulder who was named in the prize through his work in the CMS Experiment.

In 2012 scientists at the LHC discovered a particle known as the Higgs boson, a finding recognized in the recent Breakthrough Prize. The Higgs boson is responsible for giving all matter in the universe its mass. Without it, the cosmos would look very different today. Other researchers at the LHC have used collisions to recreate the incredibly hot conditions that existed in the universe a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

This year’s prize shows that science is fundamentally a team pursuit, noted Dennis Perepelitsa, associate professor of physics.

“Usually, these kinds of awards go to just a few people working in a lab to make a big breakthrough,” said Perepelitsa, who started the ATLAS group at �� in 2016 and was recognized for his work on the experiment. “But breakthroughs also happen in big teams.”

Like nowhere else

A team on campus called the High Energy Physics Group, for example, monitors crashes between protons, a basic building block of atoms, using the CMS detector.

Team member Kevin Stenson, professor of physics, explained that when protons moving at blistering speeds smack into each other, they generate so much energy that new particles spring into being—literally popping up in space that was empty a moment before. He and his colleagues sift through that wreckage looking for anything that doesn’t seem to belong.

“In physics, we have a basic theory known as the standard model, which has, for decades, explained the universe extraordinarily well,” said Stenson, who was also named in this year’s Breakthrough Prize. “But we know it’s incomplete. It’s missing pieces. So we’re looking for physics beyond the standard model—anything that looks odd or anomalous.”

�� Boulder at the LHC

Thirty-two current and former physicists at �� Boulder were named as part of the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which recognized four international collaborations.

CMS Experiment

Faculty: John Cumalat, Kevin Stenson, Keith Ulmer, Steve Wagner, Bill Ford (emeritus)
Postdoctoral researchers: Andrew Hart, George Karathanasis, Stephanie Kwan, Nick Manganelli, Filippo Marini, JaeBeom Park, Rishi Patel, Jannicke Pearkes, Alexx Perloff, Claire Savard, Davide Zuolo
Graduate students: Abbas Hassani, Emily MacDonald, Nicolas Schonbeck, Noah Zipper

ATLAS Experiment

Faculty: Jamie Nagle, Dennis Perepelitsa
Postdoctoral researchers: Ran Bi, Yeonju Go, Qipeng Hu, Sanghoon Lim, Christopher McGinn
Graduate students: Sruthy Jyothi Das, Berenice Garcia, Kurt Keys Hill, Jeff Ouellette, Blair Daniel Seidlitz

Keith Ulmer, associate professor of physics who was recognized for his work on CMS, is part of efforts at the LHC to search for the origins of dark matter. This mysterious substance pervades the universe, making up roughly 84% of its mass and gluing together entire galaxies. But scientists have never directly observed it.

“You can’t do LHC physics anywhere else,” Ulmer said. “It’s the only machine on Earth that can access these kinds of particles.”

Dawn of the universe

Perepelitsa and his colleagues, including Professor Jamie Nagle, in the Experimental Nuclear Physics Group at �� Boulder use the ATLAS detector to go bigger.

Rather than examine collisions between protons, these researchers explore impacts between the much bigger cores, or nuclei, of atoms like lead.

Those collisions generate so much heat, reaching temperatures of more than 1 trillion degrees Fahrenheit, they create what physicists call a “quark gluon plasma.” This flowing soup of particles existed microseconds after the Big Bang. It can also move like a liquid but, unlike water, experiences almost no friction.

“If you could put a quark-gluon plasma in a coffee cup, and you stirred it, it would continue swirling for an extremely long time,” Perepelitsa said.

He and his colleagues are investigating the basic properties of this swirling state of matter—with the goal of understanding the conditions that gave rise to the universe as we know it today.

Perepelitsa added that a lot of the appeal of LHC research is getting to travel to Switzerland and work in large teams of scientists. For people who love physics, there’s no place like it on Earth.

“If you’re a young scientist and are willing to work hard, it’s like Disneyland,” he said. “In the hallways, the cafeteria and the lecture halls—everybody around you is a particle physicist.”

This year's award recognized the work of four international research collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider, including 32 current and former physicists at �� Boulder.

Traditional

White

Protecting the sound of music: Clinic helps 114 individuals and counting

Megan Maneval — Fri, 09 May 2025 15:39:43 +0000

Protecting the sound of music: Clinic helps 114 individuals and counting Megan Maneval Fri, 05/09/2025 - 09:39

The Student Academy of Audiology (SAA) Earmold Clinic, operated by dedicated audiology doctoral students in the �� Boulder Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, proudly partners with the College of Music’s Golden Buffalo Marching Band and Musicians’ Wellness Program, as well as Westone Laboratories, to promote hearing conservation. This collaboration offers student musicians access to custom hearing protection at a heavily discounted rate, safeguarding their hearing despite the high sound levels they face during rehearsals and performances.

The initiative was launched by audiology doctoral students Ana Sanchez and Graham Gansar after a pivotal conversation with Jeff Ipson, director of sales at Westone Laboratories, during the Colorado Academy of Audiology Conference in October 2023. By recognizing the elevated risk of noise-induced hearing loss among musicians, the clinic was established to deliver comprehensive services—ranging from hearing tests and ear mold impressions to earmold fittings with verification measurements and wax removal care.

Since summer 2024, the clinic has helped 114 students and faculty protect their hearing, a milestone that underscores both its success and the growing impact on the community.

This student-led program not only emphasizes hands-on learning—incorporating undergraduate participation for basic tasks and patient interactions—but also serves as a testament to the passion and commitment of its leaders. As fourth-year students Ana Sanchez, Graham Gansar, Vanessa Lucero and Victoria Rivera prepare to embark on their externships, the incoming cohort is eagerly stepping in to carry the torch, ensuring continued support for both musicians and the broader university community.

By making custom hearing protection both affordable and accessible, the Earmold Clinic is fostering a culture of proactive hearing conservation and education. The partnership with Westone Laboratories brings advanced technology and expertise, while the involvement of the �� Boulder Golden Buffalo Marching Band and Musicians’ Wellness Program highlights the real-world impact of these efforts. This initiative is a powerful example of how student-led projects can create lasting change within the university community, ensuring the sounds of music will continue to inspire for generations to come.

For more information about the SAA Earmold Clinic and its services or to schedule an appointment, please email heartest@colorado.edu.

Audiology doctoral students are transforming hearing conservation for student musicians with custom solutions—helping 114 individuals and counting.

Traditional

White

New discovery shows how molecules can mute heat like music

Megan Maneval — Thu, 08 May 2025 13:37:02 +0000

New discovery shows how molecules can mute heat like music Megan Maneval Thu, 05/08/2025 - 07:37

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Assistant Professor Longji Cui and his team have developed a new technique that allows them to measure phonon interference inside of a tiny molecule. They believe, one day, this discovery can revolutionize how heat dissipation is managed in future electronics and materials.

Assistant Professor Longji Cui and his team have developed a new technique that allows them to measure phonon interference inside a tiny molecule. They believe this discovery can one day revolutionize how heat dissipation is managed in future electronics and materials.

Traditional

White

Utility Research Lab develops award-winning sustainability tech for 3D printing

Megan Maneval — Fri, 02 May 2025 19:19:38 +0000

Utility Research Lab develops award-winning sustainability tech for 3D printing Megan Maneval Fri, 05/02/2025 - 13:19

Recycling is extremely difficult for objects built with more than one type of plastic. Michael Rivera and the Utility Research Lab team have developed a novel way to disassemble 3D-printed objects for easy recycling.

Traditional

White

Scholars aim to help women make a quantum leap

Elizabeth Lock — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 18:00:31 +0000

Scholars aim to help women make a quantum leap Elizabeth Lock Wed, 04/30/2025 - 12:00

Quantum Scholars Emily Jerris and Annalise Cabra started �� Women of Quantum to help women interested in careers in quantum to network and share experiences.

Traditional

White

Science & Technology

To 'democratize' AI, make it work more like a human brain

Dogs and cats

Not found in nature

Related Articles

Advancing super-strong and lightweight carbon-based materials

Related Articles

Tiny robot team could be game-changer for safety inspections

Related Articles

Shaping the future of quantum systems

Related Articles

AI ghosts are coming: Is that comforting or creepy?

From text-based grief bots to resurrected celebrities

The rise of generative ghosts

Promise and peril

Related Articles

Disneyland for physicists: Breakthrough Prize honors scientists at world's largest particle collider

Like nowhere else

Dawn of the universe

Related Articles

Protecting the sound of music: Clinic helps 114 individuals and counting

Related Articles

New discovery shows how molecules can mute heat like music

Related Articles

Utility Research Lab develops award-winning sustainability tech for 3D printing

Related Articles

Scholars aim to help women make a quantum leap

Related Articles