Download Study of human brain yields intelligent robots

English Studies
ADVANCED LEVEL
MIDTERM EXAM
Date of Exam: 11.8.08
STUDENT’S NAME________________
I.D.No. ______________________
Length of Exam: 2 hours
Lecturer: Ms. Noa Kadman
You must answer all the questions on this exam in PEN
STUDY OF THE HUMAN BRAIN YIELDS INTELLIGENT ROBOTS
Adapted from John Markoff, The New York Times, July 18th, 2006
A
Robot cars drive themselves across the desert, electronic eyes perform lifeguard
duty in swimming pools and virtual enemies with human-like behavior battle
video game players. At Stanford University, computer scientists are developing
a robot that can use a hammer and a screwdriver to assemble an Ikea bookshelf
(a project beyond the reach of many humans) as well as tidy up after a party,
load
a
dishwasher
or
take
out
the
trash.
These are just some of the fruits of the research field known as artificial
intelligence or AI.
A half-century after the term was coined, both scientists and engineers say they
are making rapid progress in simulating the human brain, and their work is
finding its way into a new wave of real-world products that can improve safety
and security, entertain and inform, or simply perform everyday tasks.
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B
Artificial intelligence had its origins in 1950, when the mathematician Alan
Turing proposed a test to determine whether a machine could think. The test
involved having a person face two computer terminals, only one of which had a
human behind it. If a human judge could not tell which terminal was controlled
by the human, the machine could be said to be ‘intelligent’.
In the late 1950s, a field of study emerged that attempted to build systems
replicating human capabilities like speech, hearing, manual tasks and reasoning.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the original artificial intelligence researchers began
designing computer software programs they called “expert systems,” which
were essentially databases accompanied by a set of logical rules. But these were
handicapped both by underpowered computers and a lack of data (that
researchers have since amassed) about the structure and function of the
biological brain. Those shortcomings led to the failure of the first generation
of artificial intelligence projects during the 1980s, which became known as the
“AI Winter.”
C
Recently, however, researchers have begun to speak about an AI Spring, based
on new research on the workings of the human mind. They are being aided by
the exponential increase in processing power, which has created computers
millions of times more powerful than those available to researchers in the 1960s
- at consumer prices. “There’s definitely been a palpable upswing in methods,
competence and boldness,” said Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is
president-elect of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. “At
conferences you are hearing the phrase ‘human- level AI,’ and people are saying
that without blushing.”
Though most of the truly futuristic projects are probably years from the
commercial market, scientists say that, after a lull, artificial intelligence is
rapidly growing far more sophisticated. Some scientists are beginning to use the
term ‘cognitive computing,’ to distinguish their research from an earlier
generation of artificial intelligence work. What sets the new research apart is a
wealth of new biological data on how the human brain functions.
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Cognitive computing is still more of a research discipline than an industry that
can be measured in revenue or profit. It is being pursued in various pockets of
academia and the business world. But despite some of the more dramatic
achievements, improvements in the field are measured largely in increments:
voice recognition systems with decreasing failure rates, or computerized
cameras that can recognize more faces and objects than before. “There is a new
synthesis of four fields, including mathematics, neuroscience, computer science
and psychology,” said Dharmendra Modha, a computer scientist at International
Business Machines. “The implication of this is amazing. Cognitive computing is
knocking on the door of potentially mainstream applications.”
D
These advances have spurred rapid innovations in many areas: Robot cars can
now drive autonomously for hundreds of miles and voice control systems are
standard features in mid-priced automobiles. Last October, a robot car designed
by a team of Stanford engineers covered 132 miles, or 210 kilometers, of desert
road without human intervention to capture a $2 million prize offered by the
Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The feat was
particularly striking because 18 months earlier during the first such competition,
the best vehicle got no farther than seven miles, getting stuck after driving off a
mountain road.
Now the Pentagon agency has raised the stakes: Next year the robots will be
back on the road, this time in traffic in a competition to be called “urban
challenge.” At Microsoft, researchers are working on the idea of
“predestination.”
E
Machine intelligence is also now being deployed to actually map the human
brain - with the findings, in turn, helping to build better computers. Researchers
in Switzerland are building large-scale computer models to study how the brain
works, using an IBM Paragraphllel supercomputer to create the most detailed
three-dimensional model to date of a column of 10,000 neurons in the neocortex.
Henry Markram, a research scientist who is head of the project, called Blue
Brain says: “You can now zoom in on single cells and watch the electrical
activity emerging.”
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Blue Brain researchers say they believe the simulation will provide fundamental
insights that can be applied by scientists who are attempting to emulate brain
functions.
Another well-known researcher is Robert Hecht-Nielsen. Last year he began
speaking publicly about his theory of “confabulation,” a hypothesis about the
way the brain makes decisions. At a recent IBM symposium, Hecht-Nielsen
showed off a model of confabulation, demonstrating how his software program
could read two sentences from a newspaper and create a third sentence that both
made sense and was a natural extension of the previous text. For example, if the
program read: “American Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice had a morning
meeting with Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. The visit came after Rice
had accompanied Olmert on a visit to the Golan Heights and offered her
support for possible renewed peace talks with Syria.” Hech-Nielson’s program
would then generate a sentence that read: “The two leaders also discussed
additional bilateral cooperation in various fields.”
F
At Stanford, meanwhile, researchers are hoping to make more fundamental
progress in mobile robotics, building machines that can carry out tasks around
the home, like the current generation of robotic floor vacuums, but more
advanced. The field has recently been dominated by Japan and South Korea, but
the Stanford researchers have sketched out a three-year plan to bring the United
States to parity.
At the moment, the Stanford team is working on the first steps necessary to
make the robots they are building feel comfortable in an American household,
for example by training them to consistently recognize standard doorknobs and
installing robotic hands that can open doors.
“It’s time to build an AI robot,” said Andrew Ng, a Stanford computer scientist
and a leader of the project called the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot, or
STAIR. “The dream is to put a robot in every home.”
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PART ONE: Based on your Global Reading of the text, match the main idea to
the correct Paragraphgraph. (18 points)
______ Robotic cars and software that makes driving almost effortless are on
the way.
______ AI got off to a bumpy start.
______ Someday soon, dreams straight out of science fiction may invade our
lives.
______ Better late than never – Americans may soon have robotic helpers in
their homes.
______ The human brain is the ultimate model for all AI-based systems.
_____ Cognitive computing is the hottest term in AI.
PART TWO: Mark the following statements TRUE or FALSE and EXPLAIN
by quoting the relevant sentences – or parts of sentences from the text. Line
references alone will not be accepted.
(16 points)
1. The text implies that robots may be better than many people at doing some
ordinary household tasks.
TRUE / FALSE.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
2. From the very beginning, AI was very successful in imitating human
thought processes and creating products that assist humans. TRUE / FALSE.
___________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
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3. We can understand from the text that cognitive computing is fast becoming a
profitable area for investors.
TRUE \ FALSE.
___________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
4. Advances in the fields of human brain research and computer hardware are
mutually beneficial.
TRUE \ FALSE.
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
PART THREE: Based on your Close Reading of the text, answer the
following questions. Keep your answers brief and to the point, but wherever
required, write complete sentences using correct punctuation, syntax,
grammar and spelling. (50 points)
1. Fill in the following cloze with ONE word according to the text. (4 points)
The goal of early AI systems was to build computers that could __________,
____________and ____________ like ___________.
2. a) What does the term "AI Winter" refer to and why is this metaphor used ?
(4 points)
_______________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
b) What does the term "AI Spring" refer to and why is this metaphor used?
(4 points)
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
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3. Complete the following sentences:
(8 points)
a. According to Paragraph C, the main difference between the work of
earlier AI researchers and that of
today’s more sophisticated cognitive
computing projects is __________________________________________
___________________________________which was made possible due to
the incredibly fast growth of __________________________________
combined with the decrease in ____________________________________.
4. What is one IBM scientist's prediction regarding the field of cognitive
computing? Answer in your own words.
(8 points)
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
5. In your opinion, what possible interest could the Pentagon have in the
development of vehicles that drive themselves or can be controlled by voice
commands ?
(6 points)
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________.
6. Complete the following sentence in your own words:
(8 points)
The ability to watch single cells closely and the electrical activity emerging can
lead to…________________________________________________________
which can later be used to __________________________________________
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6. Fill in each space below with ANY suitable NOUN in the correct form.
(4 points)
Robert Hecht-Nielsen’s ___________ of confabulation, (as illustrated in the
example of the Condoleeza Rice/Ehud Olmert report) shows that one day
___________ may be equipped with the human-like ____________to reason
and make logical ________________.
7. The following sentence has been omitted from this text.
Where does it belong in the text ?
“They envision a software program that guesses where you are heading
based on previous trips, and then offers information that might be useful,
based on where the software thinks you are going. “
(4 points)
Paragraph_________________ line _____________
PART FOUR – References –What do the underlined words/expressions refer
to in the text ?
(8 points)
1. those shortcomings – Paragraph B ___________________________________________________________
2. those – Paragraph C ________________________________________________________
3. that – Paragraph C ________________________________________________________
4. this – Paragraph C
________________________________________________________
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PART FIVE – Vocabulary – Find the word/expression in the text which is
closest in meaning to the following:
(8 points)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
the name was devised/formulated (verb) – Paragraph A
clear/tangible – (adjective) - Paragraph C
a pause/break –(noun) Paragraph C
small amounts/gains (plural noun)– Paragraph C
pushed/driven (verb)– Paragraph D
to imitate (verb)– Paragraph E involving two sides – (adjective) - Paragraph E to raise the level/ to make at least equal – Paragraph F
THE END
GOOD LUCK!
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Intelligent Robots\Revised on 1.8.08
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