Researchers at the Allen Institute have hit an artificial-intelligence milestone: a machine that is ready for high school science. Maybe even college.
Source: A Breakthrough for A.I. Technology: Passing an 8th-Grade Science Test – The New York Times
Five years ago, the late Seattle billionaire Paul Allen, the 1975 co-founder of Microsoft alongside Bill Gates, challenged researchers to come up with an artificial intelligence program smart enough to pass an eighth-grade science test. He offered an $80,000 prize for the best AI, and 700 computer scientists accepted the challenge. They all flunked. That was then.
On September 4, The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, announced its AI software, called Aristo, scored better than 90% on an eighth-grade multiple-choice test. The AI also scored better than 80% on a test for high school seniors. The achievement represents a dramatic increase in AI capabilities in just the last few years. Looking into the details, the result, although amazing, is not quite as perfect as it seems. The exam was based on the New York Regents aptitude test. The test excluded questions which depended on interpreting pictures or diagrams. Those questions would have required visual interpretation skills the Aristo software does not have. Yet. The test also excluded questions requiring an essay.
Putting aside the exclusions, the solution showed how far AI has come since the 700 computer scientists’ AIs flunked. The Allen Institute CEO Oren Etzioni told GeekWire,
“This is a breakthrough because it’s a remarkable result on standardized test questions which require a degree of natural language understanding, reasoning, and even common sense. This is very different from both standard research benchmarks and board games like Go. Even a year ago, no one would have anticipated such rapid progress on 8th and 12th grade science questions!”
There is a lot of controversy about how an AI compares to human intelligence. Some feel it will be quite a few years before an AI can equal the reasoning capabilities of a human. Others are more optimistic. The next challenge, and a very big one, is to enable an AI to pass the Graduate Records Exam (I remember taking it in 1969), which is required for admission to graduate school.
The important thing I see in the 8th grade testing is the potential for AI use in business and healthcare. Consider the hours we spend on the phone with customer service people. I hate to say it, but many of them I have talked to could probably not pass the 8th grade test. We are getting close where we can talk to an AI who will understand us and solve our problems quickly. I have written a lot about net attitude, lack thereof, at so many websites. AI is our best hope to make many things in our lives easier and more efficient.
If you are curious about how AI can make things better in healthcare, grab a copy of Robot Attitude: How Robots and Artificial Intelligence Will Make Our Lives Better.
