ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THAT IMITATES CHILDREN'S LEARNING
The computer
programmes used in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are highly
specialised. They can for example fly airplanes, play chess or assemble cars in
controlled industrial environments. However, a research team from Gothenburg,
Sweden, has now been able to create an AI programme that can learn how to solve
problems in many different areas. The programme is designed to imitate certain
aspects of children's cognitive development.
Traditional AI
programmes lack the versatility and adaptability of human intelligence. For
example, they cannot come into a new home and cook, clean and do laundry.
In artificial
general intelligence (AGI), which is a new field within AI, scientists
try to create computer programmes with a generalised type of intelligence,
enabling them to solve problems in vastly different areas.
No pre-existing
knowledge
'We have developed a
programme that can learn for example basic arithmetic, logic and grammar
without any pre-existing knowledge,' says Claes Strannegård, a member of the
research team together with Abdul Rahim Nizamani and Ulf Persson.
The best example of
general intelligence that we know of today is the human brain, and the
scientists' strategy has been to imitate, at a very fundamental level, how
children develop intelligence. Children can learn a wide range of things. They
build new knowledge based on previous knowledge and they can use their total
knowledge to draw new conclusions. This is exactly what the scientists wanted
their programme to be able to do.
Children learn based
on experience
'We postulate that
children learn everything based on experiences and that they are always looking
for general patterns,' says Strannegård.
A child who for
example is learning multiplication and who knows that 2 x 0 = 0 and 3 x 0 = 0
can identify a pattern and conclude that also 17 x 0 = 0. However, sometimes
this method backfires. If the child knows that 0 x 0 = 0 and 1 x 1 = 1, he or
she can incorrectly conclude that 2 x 2 = 2. As soon as the child realises that
a certain pattern can lead to incorrect conclusions, he or she can simply stop
applying it.
Identify patterns
The child can in this
way create a large number of patterns not only in mathematics but also in other
areas such as logic and grammar. The patterns in a certain area can then be
combined with each other and make it possible to solve entirely new problems.
The programme developed by the Gothenburg scientists works in a similar manner.
It can identify patterns by itself and therefore differs from programmes where
a programmer has to formulate which rules the programme should apply.
'We are hoping that this
type of programme will eventually be useful in several different practical
applications. Personally, I think a versatile household robot would be
tremendously valuable, but we're not there yet,' says Strannegård.
The research team
included Claes Strannegård, Associate Professor at the Department of
Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg, and at
the Department of Applied Information Technology, Chalmers University of
Technology.
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