Surprise! Ashton Kutcher Has a Twin Brother

The Kutcher Twins, Michael and Ashton (Tom Vickers/Splash News)

A number of roles come to mind when you hear the name Ashton Kutcher: "Punk'd" host, Demi Moore's 15-years-junior husband; "Dude Where's My Car?" thespian; Kelso from "That '70s Show;" former Hollywood gadabout; and now, of course, Charlie Sheen's replacement on "Two and a Half Men."

One role that might not come to mind, however, is the one Kutcher was born into: that of a twin brother.

Ashton's fraternal twin, Michael, currently lives in their home-state Iowa raising his 7-year-old son and selling retirement plans. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy from a young age, Michael's life has been a bit more difficult than his brother's.

"I was the kid with the big Coke-bottle glasses, the hearing aid," Michael Kutcher told Details magazine in 2008. "There was a lot of teasing, a lot of the normal mean stuff."

Although known for pulling elaborate, embarrassing practical jokes on celebrities, Ashton protected his twin against the bullying of other kids. Michael said he was a model brother in many ways, including seeing Michael through a heart transplant at age 13. Having suffered for some time from a heart muscle disease, one day, Michael's heart stopped.

"Ashton never left my side," Michael told People of his brother's devotion through the procedure. "He showed me the love one brother has for another."

One successful heart surgery and twenty years later, Michael isn't looking to replicate Ashton's fame. He has, however, tiptoed into the spotlight as a lobbyist for Reaching for the Stars, an organization that works on behalf of children with cerebral palsy.

"Being Ashton Kutcher's brother, it gives me the opportunity to be that voice, and I realize that I needed to use the opportunity to help others," he explained during his first trip to Washington, D.C. last year.

US military builds a mini-Skynet

By: Trent Nouveau

The US military has confirmed that it is conducting "basic research" related to hierarchical machine perception and analysis.Potential applications are likely to include visual, acoustic and somatic sensor processing for the detection and classification of objects or activities.

"The quantity of data available to DoD commanders and analysts from new sensor platforms with improved resolution and range poses tremendous challenges," explained DARPA spokesperson Tony Falcone.

"This [information] must be quickly and correctly analyzed, currently by highly trained human operators. As sensor capabilities expand, sophisticated, powerful machines with the ability to replicate, and even surpass, human perceptual capabilities will be required."

According to Falcone, such advanced requirements have prompted DARPA to carefully study recent machine learning "breakthroughs" in the context of its Deep Learning program.

"[Remember], the human visual system uses six layers of cortical processing, in addition to all of the preprocessing done by the retina and the lateral geniculate nucleus. [But] the neural net-based machines we use today generally [only] have two or three layers.



"[Now], Deep Learning isn't a biomimetic program, but if we believe that biological systems exhibit an economy of complexity, this suggests that we need to go deeper and have more layers; we are just beginning to understand how to do that."

Indeed, as Falcone notes, Deep Learning research could eventually allow neural-nets to achieve "human-level or better" analysis of  and other sensor modalities. 


"Deep Learning should enable commanders to make more informed decisions faster by ensuring that subtle, yet critical correlations that may exist in very large collections of data are uncovered, explored and analyzed. 



"The result is that data sources are being used more effectively, yielding greater confidence in the reliability of the information on which subsequent command decisions are made," he added.