How do you teach common sense? DARPA wants to find out
How do you teach common sense? DARPA wants to find out
Hanson Robotics' humanoid robot, Sophia, uses artificial
intelligence to socialize with humans. DARPA wants to use artificial
intelligence to equip machines with the capability to learn and reason.
By: Brandon Knapp February 26, 2018
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to
start a new program that will take machine learning to a new level: to help
computers develop common sense.
The agency that takes on some of the Department of
Defense’s hardest problems asked for $6.2 million for the program in its fiscal
2019 budget request.
“Recent advances in machine learning have resulted in
exciting new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in areas such as image
recognition, natural language processing, and two-person strategy games (Chess,
Go),” according to the document. “But in all of these application domains, the
machine reasoning is narrow and highly specialized; broad, commonsense
reasoning by machines remains elusive.”
The request details how humans and machines will
cultivate a symbiotic relationship in which humans teach machines to learn and
reason.
“The program will create more human-like knowledge
representations, for example, perceptually-grounded representations, to enable
commonsense reasoning by machines about the physical world and spatio-temporal
phenomena,” the document reads.
The problem of learning common sense has long been one of
the most difficult hurdles facing AI researchers. In order for a machine to be
considered truly intelligent, it must be able to reason using the broad scope
of information that humans are expected to possess.
For example, imagine an autonomous robot programmed to be
a waiter at a cocktail party. When the robot sees it has picked up a broken
glass, common sense reasoning tells it not to pour liquid into the glass, but
instead pick up a different one.
The potential list of applications for a system equipped
with general common sense reasoning is endless. This prospect of general AI,
equipped with superhuman level computing power and learning capabilities,
prompted tech mogul Elon Musk to warn that humanity risks “summoning a demon”
if we’re not careful. Others, such as Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates, have
echoed Musk’s sentiment.
Many Defense Department leaders, however, have taken a
different view and embraced the prospect of machine learning technology as not
only inevitable, but a force for good. Former Deputy Defense Secretary, Bob
Work, touted machine learning technology as a necessary innovation that will
allow machines to help humans make decisions faster.
Work’s Third Offset strategy called for the Pentagon to
embrace advances in artificial intelligence technology and encouraged
human-machine teaming on the battlefield.
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