IQ Test Pegs ConceptNet 4 AI About As Smart As a 4-Year-Old

An anonymous reader writes "Artificial and natural knowledge researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have IQ-tested one of the best available artificial intelligence systems to see how intelligent it really is. Turns out–it's about as smart as the average 4-year-old. The team put ConceptNet 4, an artificial intelligence system developed at M.I.T., through the verbal portions of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence Test, a standard IQ assessment for young children. They found ConceptNet 4 has the average IQ of a young child. But unlike most children, the machine's scores were very uneven across different portions of the test." If you'd like to play with the AI system described here, take note of the ConceptNet API documentation, and this Ubuntu-centric installation guide.

Comments

More like autistic-savant 4 year old

[schneidafunk]

From the article: “If a child had scores that varied this much, it might be a symptom that something was wrong,” said Robert Sloan, professor and head of computer science at UIC, and lead author on the study.

Re:More like autistic-savant 4 year old

[Metabolife]

Similar to how a typical Slashdot user might score amazingly well on the math section and then never score in real life?

Re:More like autistic-savant 4 year old

[Vanderhoth]

Obligatory, I for one welcome our new four year old mentally unstable electronic overlords.

Re:More like autistic-savant 4 year old

[Anonymous Coward]

It is indeed an indicator of something wrong. Can you imagine an AI with the mores and intelligence of a small child with access to vast amounts of information? Have you ever seen a small child in the store? I HATE you mommy!. That that emotional maturity and intelligence and that mommy would be dead. Machines like this will be dangerous.

Re:More like autistic-savant 4 year old

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn it, I'm not even good at slashdot reading - I score bad at math and don't get laid! :(

Re:More like autistic-savant 4 year old

[Vanderhoth]

so five then?

Re:More like autistic-savant 4 year old

[Anonymous Coward]

Being as intelligent as a 4 year old human on an IQ test is not even remotely related to having the learning abilities of a 4 year old human.

Sample output when tested

[Anonymous Coward]

No!

Misleading crap

[Anonymous Coward]

We are nowhere near getting an AI that can navigate the world at the level of a 4 year old. All the program can do is simple tasks in vocabulary and such with no real understanding of those words. Nothing to see here.

Re:Misleading crap

[DougOtto]

Sounds like my ex-wife.

Re:Misleading crap

[ebno-10db]

We are nowhere near getting an AI that can navigate the world at the level of a 4 year old. All the program can do is simple tasks in vocabulary and such with no real understanding of those words. Nothing to see here.

The headline is the usual attention grabbing junk, but the article itself does a decent job of explaining it:

Sloan said ConceptNet 4 did very well on a test of vocabulary and on a test of its ability to recognize similarities.

“But ConceptNet 4 did dramatically worse than average on comprehension—the ‘why’ questions,” he said.

One of the hardest problems in building an artificial intelligence, Sloan said, is devising a computer program that can make sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts–the dictionary definition of commonsense.

Commonsense has eluded AI engineers because it requires both a very large collection of facts and what Sloan calls implicit facts–things so obvious that we don’t know we know them. A computer may know the temperature at which water freezes, but we know that ice is cold.

“All of us know a huge number of things,” said Sloan. “As babies, we crawled around and yanked on things and learned that things fall. We yanked on other things and learned that dogs and cats don’t appreciate having their tails pulled. Life is a rich learning environment.”

IQ tests mean little enough for a human being, for AI they're little more than cute. Most 4 year old's know if someone is mad at them (expression, tone of voice, etc.) and, from past experience, often know why someone is mad at them. They're also clever enough to pretend they don't know why someone is mad at them. Most importantly (and practically), they know to start acting cute before somebody kills them. Let me know when an AI program can do that.

P.S. This is not to disparage the AI work, just to keep things in perspective.

I think they have it backwards

[shadowrat]

They didn't assess how intelligent this AI is. They assessed the IQ test and found it to be a poor indication of intelligence.

Re:I think they have it backwards

[bunratty]

It's the most accepted way to give a number to intelligence for a human being. In other words, the score on the IQ test is correlated highly with the intelligence of the person who took the test. There isn't necessarily such a correlation for computer programs. A relatively simple computer program might score highly on an IQ test designed for humans, but that certainly doesn't mean it's as smart as a human. I've taught this idea to AI classes -- it's a question near the beginning of the Russell & Norvig AI book.

Re:But

[leonardluen]

for a 4 year old i am pretty sure the value of pi is "more" and possibly "with ice cream"

Re:OOOh IQ thread.

[MugenEJ8]

Yup... an apostrophe.

Unfortunately

[puddingebola]

Unfortunately the AI also lied that it had completed its arithmetic assignment so that it could go out to recess early. It is also suspected of taking an extra snack at snack time, and caused a disturbance during nap time.

Re:But

[Laxori666]

That's how we lost ol' Timmy. Asked him to give us a few digits of that good ol' pi and he just durn went and hung himself right in the ol' barn. We stopped teachin' the young'uns maths after that lil' incident.

Re:But

[flyingfsck]

I'm wondering whether your post deserves a whoosh, or a huh? or whether you are a 4 year old AI...