New Artificial Intelligence Program Mimics How a Child Learns

Artificial intelligence (AI) is continuing to improve by leaps and bounds. It can help fly airplanes, play chess or assemble cars. Now, scientists have turned their efforts to creating an AI program that can learn to solve problems in many different areas. How does it manage this feat? It mimics certain aspects of how a child learns.

Traditional AI programs lack the versatility and adaptability of human intelligence. For example, while humans can walk into a given situation and decide how to react, traditional AI programs have to be aware of what the situation ahead of time. This new program, though, may help break down some of the barriers between human intelligence and AI.

"We have developed a program that can learn for example basic arithmetic, logic and grammar without any pre-existing knowledge," said Claes Strannegard, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The new program is modeled off of the human brain; more specifically, the researchers examined how a child learns things. They based their new program on the idea that children learn everything based on experiences and that they're always looking for general patterns. These patterns aren't just present in mathematics, but can also be found in logic and grammar.

It seems that the program is indeed a success. It can identify patterns by itself, which differs greatly from programs where a programmer has to formulate which rules the program should apply. Instead, the new program follows its own rules.

"We are hoping that this type of program will eventually be useful in several different practical applications," said Strannegard. "Personally, I think a versatile household robot would be tremendously valuable, but we're not there yet."

The new findings could be useful in future robots and other applications. By basing a program off of humans, it's possible to create a program that is adaptable and can learn for itself.