Softpedia >News >Technology & Gadgets >Robots & Drones
Softpedia Homepage   

Scientists Build a Computer with a Brain of a Four-Year-Old

It might take some time until we see it mature

Oct 7, 2015 12:45 GMT  ·  By
After decades of research, the current AI is at the level of a 4-year-old; that's not so bad
   After decades of research, the current AI is at the level of a 4-year-old; that's not so bad

For years, writers and luminaries and filmmakers thought that smart AIs will be the end of the human race, and it seems we are close to that. Scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago managed to create an AI that got an IQ test score of a four-year-old kid.

To stop computer science progress in developing better and better artificial intelligence out of an apocalyptic fear of sentient destructive robots is folly. Robots are machines that do not really think by themselves but rather simulate that, and they do it rather well, with a computer AI managing to get decent scores at a standard IQ test given to humans.

Using the open-source system called ConceptNet, the scientists took the standard Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-III) test that is usually given to children and is capable of an estimation of cognitive function of its subjects. The test also searches for any strengths and weaknesses in someone's cognitive thinking, and when applied to the computer AI, it managed to test the computer's ability to understand language and even process responses.

Smart for a four-year-old kid, not so much for five- and seven-year-olds

According to phys.org, the scores aren't that optimistic if we push the AI further. While the scores are great for a four-year-old, they are under what WPPSI-III should expect from a kid under 5 to 7 years old, so we probably have to wait a little while longer until the AI gets any smarter.

The typical problems the AI had are usually encountered with kids of about 4 years old that sometimes have problems confusing homonyms of words at past tense with object names, like "saw" the cutting object with the verb "see" at the past tense. When asked what someone would use a saw for, it responded “an eye is used to see.”

It took a very long time for AI researchers and engineers to build an artificial intelligence that reaches the level of intelligence of a four-year-old, but this time progress to a much smarter machine might get even faster thanks to the way industry gets exponentially better and more advanced.