HOW SMART IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?

In case you have not heard, the growing sector of artificial intelligence has made some remarkable progress of late. In 2016, researchers developed a new method of appraising machine intelligence. They used this to evaluate “IQ scores” for some AI systems. The results indicated that the Google Brain had strengthened its “IQ” score by over 70 per cent between 2014 and 2016. This goes a long way to show how vital the progress made with artificial intelligence. But really, how smart are the artificial intelligence of today?

One of the most advanced artificial intelligence systems is about as smart as an infant, new research suggests. But your infant may have better common sense.

An artificial intelligence (AI) system has an IQ identical to that of a 4-year-old child, according to some recent study, but its capabilities don’t equally match those of a child. Artificial Intelligence has been getting smarter for years, and some technologists even believe we are getting to the point when machine intelligence will overtake human.

In a recent study, researchers decided to test out just how close to human intelligence AI has come. They gave the verbal portions of a standard IQ test called the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence test to an AI.

The machine’s score was homogeneous to that of a 4-year-old. But this was no ordinary 4-year old: its intelligence was all over the map. The program (AI) scored hugely on the vocabulary portions of the test, but flattered on comprehension sections, which are based majorly on the “why” questions.” The computer also seemed to lack common sense.

Through life experience, most of us gather subconscious knowledge of the world that we rely on to make quick and wise judgments. AI’s “childhood” is deprived in comparison. For example, AI may know the freezing point of water, but people know better the importance of steering clear of a cold environment.

As a toddler, we creep and crawled around on things and learned that things fall. We crawled on other things and learned that dogs and cats don’t appreciate having their tails pulled. Life is a rich learning environment, which an artificial intelligence lack.