Intel: Code Name? Horse Feathers?
July 31, 2020
After Intel’s track record of manufacturing excellence, the company moved into a “breakthrough” in quantum computing. What you don’t know about Horse Ridge? Oh, right, the company’s inability to produce chips designed to put AMD in the revenue dumpster are delayed for — what? — the second, third time? But who is counting?
“Intel Researchers Create AI System That Rates Similarity of Two Pieces of Code” reports another gigantic breakthrough:
In partnership with researchers at MIT and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Intel scientists say they’ve developed an automated engine — Machine Inferred Code Similarity (MISIM) — that can determine when two pieces of code perform similar tasks, even when they use different structures and algorithms. MISIM ostensibly outperforms current state-of-the-art systems by up to 40 times, showing promise for applications from code recommendation to automated bug fixing.
Okay, this is another corporate innovation with some modest, probably inconsequential assistance, from two big name universities. Plus the technical matching seems similar to the approach described in “MIT Algorithm Finds Subtle Connections between Art Pieces.” Interesting perhaps?
How does this Intel innovation work? Sussing. Yep, that’s the word:
MISIM works because of its novel context-aware semantic structure (CASS), which susses out the purpose of a given bit of source code using AI and machine learning algorithms. Once the structure of the code is integrated with CASS, algorithms assign similarity scores based on the jobs the code is designed to perform. If two pieces of code look different but perform the same function, the models rate them as similar — and vice versa.
DarkCyber has a couple of questions:
- Will the method be used to address certain flaws in the Intel security used in its long-in-the-tooth processors?
- Will the “novel” invention be patented? If yes, will the graduate students and university professors be listed as inventors?
- Will the procedure be used to determine if another firm has used Intel code?
Worth monitoring because one of the schools contributing time, talent, and resources to the Intel invention is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yep, the outfit that accepted funds from everyone’s favorite socialite Jeffrey Epstein. Mr. Epstein had an interesting background. MIT allegedly zipped its lips about this luminary’s financial support. I am tempted to saddle up and ride the Horse Ridge to enlightenment, but I shall refrain from equine antics.
Stephen E Arnold, July 31, 2020
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