Researchers: Computer teaches itself everything about anything

We've all been there, sitting in front of our Internet device, searching for answers to our questions, navigating the idiosyncrasies of search tools, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and all the others. Two Seattle computer scientists believe they developed a technology that can narrow down Internet search results faster than the search engine behemoths, all using a computer that teaches itself about concepts.

They call it LEVAN, short for Learning Everything about Anything. It's a cloud-based computer program the researchers claim can teach itself everything there is to know about a visual concept, and make the results searchable for anyone to access.

"No one has done this in the world, and we believe it will have a lot of impact for users who want to know more about concepts," says Santosh Divvala, a computer scientist at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Divvala along with Ali Farhadi, an associate professor of Computer Science at the University of Washington began collaborating on LEVAN two years ago.