Computers that Can Teach Themselves

Machine learning is a favorite topic in AI.  We did that in a simple form in what was called case based reasoning.  But who directs learning?  Can a machine create its own appetite for learning by knowing what it does not know?  DARPA thinks so.   Using methods " ... Called “Probabilistic Programming for Advanced Machine Learning,” or PPAML, scientists will be asked to figure out how to “enable new applications that are impossible to conceive of using today’s technology,” while making experts in the field “radically more effective,” according to a recent agency announcement. At the same time, Darpa wants to make the machines simpler and easier for non-experts to build machine-learning applications too.... "  This remains a very tough problem, even as DARPA repositions it.