Minsung Cho

How can humans differentiate between a dog and a wolf — especially when the dog is a Siberian Husky?

The human brain has an incredible ability to extract unique patterns from objects and relate that information to prior knowledge. Even if we have only learned about dogs and cats, we can still recognize a wolf by integrating existing knowledge — for instance, realizing, “Wow, the wolf is larger than a dog, but it has a similar face.” This mechanism also applies to more ambiguous concepts or events. Suppose I once had an experience of being hit by a truck; even if the vehicle type changes, I would still react defensively when a taxi approaches. The brain can generalize and differentiate using relational and structural knowledge.

But what about artificial neural networks? Can they infer what a wolf is if they have only been trained on dogs and cats? These are the questions that drive my research interests. When we don’t know how to improve a system, the best approach is often to mimic how nature—or the brain—already solves it best. They know the answer!