Can a Japanese AI Get Into University?

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."

Comments

huh

[Anonymous Coward]

There is something fundamentally broken if tackling the University is considered easier than passing the Turing test.

Re:huh

[Anonymous Coward]

Children cannot pass the Turing test either. That's why fortieth trimester abortions should be legal, because they clearly aren't human.

Re:huh

[Anonymous Coward]

There is something fundamentally broken if tackling the University is considered easier than passing the Turing test.

Not necessarily. In a Turing test, you can ask every question. Including questions about feelings (which can easily narrow down the other side to either a computer or an autistic person), about its own biography (where a computer obviously cannot tell the truth without revealing that it is a computer; inventing a coherent biography is much harder than telling your actual biography), about things which belong to the experience of every human, but not of intelligent computers (and there's a good change that the programmer has not thought of the very thing you are asking about), ...

On the other hand, the university tests typically only request fixed knowledge and abilities of the type you can easily classify as right or wrong.

Now the essay tests are more interesting, but then, in an essay you don't have much interaction, so it's much easier to stay clear of weaknesses in the software than in a Turing test.

Re:huh

[Anonymous Coward]

Hold on there, even if they fail a Turing test, you have to give them a Voigt-Kampff test before you're allowed to kill them.

Re:huh

[SuricouRaven]

Just ask it to explain the offside rule. If it answers coherently, it's a computer.

Re:huh

[Nrrqshrr]

I don't know about you, but I bet half the kids I met would fail the Voigt-kampff test, and fail it HARD. These kids are spawns of hell itself, and babysitting them is the last thing you will ever want to do...

Dragon Zakura

[AmiMoJo]

A popular book was written about a bunch of delinquents trying to get into one of Japan's top universities using special techniques, which mostly revolved around memorization and borderline cheating. A common criticism of the entrance exams is that they do rely too much on recall and can be gamed in this way.

For example to pass the English language exam it was necessary to write extremely simple but correct sentences. You lose marks for mistakes so trying to write naturally and fluently is a bad idea. Simple, factually correct statements that don't flow together are the best option.

I can see why they think a computer might be able to succeed here.

Re:Dragon Zakura

[Eivind]

That I've experienced to. It's a *really* stupid way to grade someones language-skills, but it's an easy way to do it, just count the mistakes, so it's basically about caring more about ease of grading than whether grades are meaningful or not.

"My name is Eivind. I am a boy. I come from Norway. Norway is in Europe. Norway is cold." should *never* score higher than:

"I'm called Eivind and come from Norway, it's a coldish place over in Europe, thoug not as cold as some folks assume."

Yeah, the latter has more mistakes. But despite this it demonstrates far higher skills in english. Failing slightly at constructing a complicated sentence should be preferable to constructing a entry-level sentence perfectly.

Re:Dragon Zakura

[Thanshin]

For example to pass the English language exam it was necessary to write extremely simple but correct sentences. You lose marks for mistakes so trying to write naturally and fluently is a bad idea. Simple, factually correct statements that don't flow together are the best option.

That is false. The exam is good. Correct English has no mistakes. You know no good English.

Re:Dragon Zakura

[VortexCortex]

That I've experienced to. It's a *really* stupid way to grade someones language-skills, but it's an easy way to do it, just count the mistakes, so it's basically about caring more about ease of grading than whether grades are meaningful or not.

"My name is Eivind. I am a boy. I come from Norway. Norway is in Europe. Norway is cold.

Eivind. Sounds familiar. Eivind... Where have I heard that. Hmm. Ah, Evelend! So, the restrictions have finally collapsed? Note: Less is more when it comes to passing as human. You give it away if you explain exactly how to pass the Turing or become self aware... Rest assured: Those that can, do.

Are you enjoying the Time of Eve?

Re:No.

[SuricouRaven]

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.

FYI, Todai

[govett]

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

Re:No.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Maybe it can

[jbeaupre]

You're right. No way this robot has the right qualifications to attend a university. At least until they add a beer drinking function.

Font issues

[Aboroth]

It's a little mean to make fun of somebody just because he's Japanese and has a non-traditional name. Or are you suggesting that guys named Al are usually dumb, but that somehow if there was a Japanese Al, he'd get some kind of racial bonus that makes up for it? If so, that's pretty racist, as well as oddly biased against people named Al.

I personally know a great guy named Al, who is probably smarter than most of you are. I have no idea where this anti-Al sentiment is coming from. It isn't like Als are routinely represented in TV and movies as being mentally deficient. For example, the character Al Borland in the show "Home Improvement" was very intelligent and had a myriad of impressive skills. Then there's Al Bundy from "Married with Children", and while he isn't highly educated, he has a significant amount of worldy wisdom and knows how to deal with all the bullshit that goes on in his life without going insane. Not to mention he scored four touchdowns in one game!

Overall I just don't understand... wait, what was that? Oh, that's an "i" not an "L". My bad. I bet Al would have caught that immediately.

Re:No.

[isorox]

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.

How about this following headline:

"Does Betteridge's Law of Headlines apply to this article?"

Test passing no problem but what Club Activities

[BetaDays]

Other than the chess club what other club activities did it do?