Smarter Than a 4-Year-Old...

Image Source: Technology Review

Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Humor, Robotics, STEM

IQ tests have a dubious history with respect to bias of cultural groups' exposure and resources. This is a new twist. Alas, the robot apocalypse shall have to wait for...kindergarten (and, maybe potty training)!

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: First some background. The science of measuring human skills and performance is known as psychometrics. When it comes to human intelligence, the most widely accepted psychometric test is the Intelligence Quotient, or IQ test.

This consists of two parts. The first is a set of questions designed to test various aspects of human performance. The second is a database of test results that future results can be compared against. This is how humans are rated; as above or below average compared to the database, for example.

IQ tests are also designed to test humans at different stages of their lives. So a test designed for adults is unlikely to provide much insight into the performance of 10-year-olds or 4-year-olds. So the process of designing tests and creating the test-result database has to be done for each of these groups.

Just why it has trouble with this kind of reasoning in certain circumstances isn’t clear.

What’s more, many of the wrong answers are entirely unlike those that children would give. For example, in the word reasoning category, ConceptNet 4 was given the following clues: “This animal has a mane if it is male,” “this is an animal that lives in Africa,” and “this a big yellowish-brown cat.”

But its top five answers were: dog, farm, creature, home, and cat.

That’s bizarre. “Common sense should at the very least confine the answer to animals, and should also make the simple inference that, “if the clues say it is a cat, then types of cats are the only alternatives to be considered,” say Ohlsson and co.

All this pointed Ohlsson and co to a clear conclusion. “The ConceptNet system scored a WPPSI-III VIQ that is average for a four-year-old child, but below average for five- to seven-year-olds,” they say.

Physics arXiv:
Measuring an Artificial Intelligence System's Performance on a Verbal IQ Test For Young Children
Stellan Ohlsson, Robert H. Sloan, György Turán, Aaron Urasky