When we estimate how well we learn in the class, we are required to take an exam, then the score will reflect the studying results. Similarly, when we would like to estimate how smart an artificial intelligence robot can be, it is also easier and more direct to have a score. Using this score, we can also see to what extent AI robot can out-perform human being. Recently, a Japanese artificial intelligence robot team created a robot “Todai” to take the university entrance exam in Japan and compare the exam results with all the students (Todai is the abbreviation of University of Tokyo, the top university in Japan). The robot did quite well in the first stage of exams for multiple choices on different subjects and mathematics, being top 1% in the mathematics exam. However, the robot failed to answer most of the question in English test due to the reason that AI cannot understand the sentences and they cannot read. At the end, the robot did not pass the exam of University of Tokyo but it did pass the exam of other approximately 60 universities in Japan. The speechmaker pointed out that at the current stage, it was not possible to make AI robot understand the meaning of the sentence or knowledge, which is what human being can do. She encouraged educators to put more emphasis on understanding the meaning instead of only memorizing knowledge because memorization can be easily done by AI robots.
After watching this video from Tedtalk, I found it interesting because in this measurable way we are actually able to see how smart AI can be at current stage. We can also better prepare to overcome the threat AI robot could bring to the job market. However, with the high-pace development of technology and science, the possibility of AI robot being able to have motion, read and understand the meaning of sentences might not be zero. Therefore, it would be interesting to see how far the artificial intelligence can go.
