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Can a Japanese AI Get Into University?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the I'm-afraid-I-don't-like-my-schedule-dave dept.

the_newsbeagle writes "Japanese researchers are trying to develop an artificial intelligence program that can pass the standardized test required of all college-bound high school students. Interestingly, the AI is showing good progress in the history portion of the exam, because it's fairly adept at looking up answers in a vast textual database. But the so-called Todai Robot is having trouble with math, 'because the questions are presented as word problems, which the Todai Robot must translate into equations that it can solve,' as well as with physics, which 'presumes that the robot understands the rules of the universe.' If the AI does succeed in mastering the general university exam, researchers will next tackle the notoriously difficult University of Tokyo entrance exam, which will require the bot to write essays."

4 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. No. by clemdoc · · Score: 1, Informative

    There's even some rather stupid "law of headlines" that says so (it has to be right at least sometimes).
    BTW: That is not limited to Japanese AIs.

    1. Re:No. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 4, Informative

      Betteridge's Law of Headlines: "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."

      It's more a guideline than a law - exceptions exist, but are rare. It holds true because the question-mark-headline is a sign of a story where the author has had to resort to speculation in order to make up for a rather uninteresting set of facts.

    2. Re:No. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      For the curious (like myself):

      Betteridge's Law of Headlines

      This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no." The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it.

      I shall cherish this information forever.

  2. FYI, Todai by govett · · Score: 5, Informative

    FYI, "Todai" is the abbreviation for "Tokyo Daigaku" (University of Tokyo).