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Science Quickly

This Artificial Intelligence Learns like a Baby

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2 • 639 Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2022

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Engineers at the company DeepMind built a machine-learning system based on research on how babies’ brain works, and it did better on certain tasks than its conventional counterparts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

J-P. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T dot-C-O-J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:32.6

This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Taguata.

0:39.9

Artificial intelligence systems have bested humans at chess, poker, jeopardy, go, and

0:45.5

countless other games.

0:46.9

But machines still aren't that great at understanding some basic rules about the physical

0:51.1

world.

0:51.7

They still can't do what three-month-olds do. And I think this is,

0:56.1

you know, I'm a champion of babies at the end of the day. And this is a clear win for babies.

1:01.0

Babies are still slam dunking, even our most powerful computers when it comes to intuitive physics.

1:07.2

Cognitive psychologist Susan Hespos of Northwestern University listed off a few examples of those intuitive physics principles, like solidity.

1:15.9

Your coffee cup does not just fall right through the table, or continuity. Objects don't just blink in and out of existence.

1:23.0

And boundedness, when you pick up your coffee cup, it sticks together. You don't end up with just the handle.

1:28.3

Babies know all three of these things as early as three months of age. Their visual acuity is lousy. The world is blurry. They could barely grasp this stuff.

1:38.3

You know, babies get a lot of things wrong, but it's just these initial kernels that get elaborated and refined through

1:45.2

experience in the world. Now computer engineers have taken a page from the baby playbook.

1:50.0

Researchers at Deep Mind, that's the AI company that trained computers to beat humans at Go,

1:55.4

they've endowed a machine learning system with certain kernels of knowledge about intuitive physics

1:59.8

built in, akin to what an infant

...

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