By Louis Fourie
Johannesburg - Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a major role in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and will increasingly change our future in the years to come.
A mere four years ago AI was not even able to pass a Grade eight science test. Seven hundred computer scientists competed in a contest with a significant amount of money as prize. They had to build artificial intelligence that could pass a Grade eight science test.
The computer scientists did their best, but not even the most advanced AI system could score better than 60percent in the test. It seems that the AI was just not advanced enough to fully reach the language and logic skills expected of students in the eighth grade. But this all changed in early September of this year when a renowned laboratory in Seattle, US, - the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence - demonstrated a new AI system that has been able to pass the Grade eight exam with great ease.
The AI system was able to answer more than 90percent of the questions correctly. And if this was not enough, it also passed the Grade 12 science exam with an amazing 83percent!
The AI system, named Aristo by researchers, is a dedicated system specifically built for multiple-choice type of questions. Although it took the standard exams for students of New York, all questions with pictures or diagrams, as well as direct answer questions were removed, since that would also require computer vision skills in combination with language understanding and logic skills...Read the full article in the October edition of the IOL Tech Digimag.
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*Professor Louis C H Fourie is a futurist and technology strategist.