A cunning team of researchers at Facebook has come up with a series of questions that they say an artificial intelligence must be able to answer if it is ever to match the brain power of a human.
The goal is to evaluate an AI's ability to solve a range of useful tasks, so that eventually we can have ordinary conversations with machines. The team also says that humans should be able to get full marks on this AI exam, so why not try a selection of their questions for yourself? Click through for the answers.
Question 1
John is in the playground.
Bob is in the office.
John picked up the football.
Bob went to the kitchen.
1. Where is the football?
2. Where was Bob before the kitchen?
Answer 1
1. Playground
2. Office
Question 2
Daniel picked up the football.
Daniel dropped the football.
Daniel got the milk.
Daniel took the apple.
1. How many objects is Daniel holding?
Answer 2
1. Two
Question 3
The triangle is to the right of the blue square.
The red square is on top of the blue square.
The red sphere is to the right of the blue square.
1. Is the red sphere to the right of the blue square?
2. Is the red square to the left of the triangle?
Answer 3
1. Yes
2. Yes
Question 4
The football fits in the suitcase.
The suitcase fits in the cupboard.
The box of chocolates is smaller than the football.
1. Will the box of chocolates fit in the suitcase?
Answer 4
1. Yes
Question 5
Sbdm ip im vdu yonrckblms.
Abf ip im vdu bhhigu.
Sbdm yigaus ly vdu hbbvfnoo.
Abf zumv vb vdu aivgdum.
1. Mduku ip vdu hbbvfnoo?
2. Mduku znp Abf fuhbku vdu aivgdum?
Answer 5
This is a trick question – it is actually identical to Question 1, but with the letters in each word scrambled. An AI can still get it right because it learns to answer statistically based on previous questions it has seen, rather than learning the true meaning of words.
1. yonrckblms
2. bhhigu
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
