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Fujitsu Building Robot To Pass Math Exams

itwbennett writes "Pity those poor Japanese students who attend cram schools, either full time or in addition to their regular schooling, to have a shot at passing the grueling math entrance exams for Tokyo University. If Fujitsu has its way, those students will be upstaged by a robot. The company has set a goal for the year 2021 of building an artificial intelligence robot that can pass the exams."

12 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. How intelligent will the robot be? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2

    Will it be able to cheat? :-)

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  2. We already have that by Hentes · · Score: 2

    Wolfram Alpha already knows that level of math.

  3. Re:Robot first post by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2

    They want to build an artificial intelligence robot. Of course it won't care about first posts.
    However they have to be careful: If they make it too intelligent, it will recognize solving the exam as an useless task and refuse to do it.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  4. Controversy in this article by bobbutts · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It strikes a "major emotional chord" if a computer can handle some exam better than students? Does it strike a major emotional chord with a sprinter if a car can beat him in a race?

    1. Re:Controversy in this article by Eponymous+Hero · · Score: 3, Funny

      would it strike an emotional chord with husbands if their wives preferred to have sex with their car's shifter instead of them?

      does that work for you?

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    2. Re:Controversy in this article by Matheus · · Score: 2

      I'll get back to you on that question in a minute...

      (now where's my box of tissues?)

  5. Word problems by Iamthecheese · · Score: 3

    Without word problems this is just OCR plus stuff we've been doing for decades. Even with word problems it's not groundbreaking, not since Watson.

    --
    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
  6. the next extention, cheating by Tynin · · Score: 2

    As soon as something like this robot is able to be made, the miniaturized stealth version will no doubt follow. The device would just need a moment of line of sight on the test and could deliver the answers to you, perhaps in morse code skin taps. I suspect there are quite a few people who would love to be able to breeze into an engineering degree, as just one example.

  7. Reminds me of an Asimov story by Kittenman · · Score: 2

    Possibly called the "Feeling of power". Wasn't there one where a soldier learnt to do computation in his head (multiplication, etc) rather than use a computer. Seniors couldn't believe it, checked his answers against a computer and they were right. When they started making plans to use human pilots to replace computers in missiles/bombs (a pre-runner of these pilotless drones, I just realized) the original soldier killed himself.

    --
    "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
  8. How can it not? by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 2

    Will it be able to cheat? :-)

    Given that most of the maths department courses where I work ban the use of all electronic calculation devices it will be cheating by taking the exam.

  9. My dog ate my math exam... by John+Bresnahan · · Score: 2

    My dog ate my math exam, and later passed it. Thank you! I'm here all week!

  10. Here is the story: The Feeling Of Power by OzPeter · · Score: 2
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