So it’s 2021. Do we think for ~$1000 dollars we could buy the hardware to emulate the human brain?
See this report. TL;DR: See the figure from it, below. This displays different estimates for how much computation it would take to perform tasks as well as the human brain. It also displays some GPUs for reference, with their prices.
Note that it’s important what Kurzweil means by “emulate the human brain.” If he means literally build brain emulations, i.e. a uploaded version of a particular human, then it would probably take more towards the higher end of this scale. If he means just make an AI that is just as good at various tasks, it’s probably towards the lower end of this scale. Also, hardware prices have probably gone down somewhat since this report came out.
See this report. TL;DR: See the figure from it, below. This displays different estimates for how much computation it would take to perform tasks as well as the human brain. It also displays some GPUs for reference, with their prices.
Note that it’s important what Kurzweil means by “emulate the human brain.” If he means literally build brain emulations, i.e. a uploaded version of a particular human, then it would probably take more towards the higher end of this scale. If he means just make an AI that is just as good at various tasks, it’s probably towards the lower end of this scale.
Also, hardware prices have probably gone down somewhat since this report came out.