Artificial Intelligence Passes Grade 8 Exam

In an era where more tasks are being performed by robots than ever before, it’s interesting to see the new challenges being met by Artificial Intelligence. About four years ago nearly 700 computer scientists competed to create a software that could pass the Grade 8 science exam. They were tested on their language and logic skills that students are expected to have at that stage of life.

The most successful system at that time could only score a mere 60%. However, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle continued to work on the problem. As with all things, their persistence paid off this month. Their sophisticated AI system was able to answer 90% of the eighth grade exam, as well as 80% of the twelve grade exam. Their system is called Aristo and is designed to answer multiple choice questions.

Aristo performed on standard tests which are administered to students in New York. The technology, however, could move in many directions. The science project has a wide range of potential uses available to it in the future. It has definitely taken AI far from the simple chess playing and back gammon winning machines. The new research could move into dimensions which allow robots to have conversations just like human beings would and a lot more.