Teaching Artificial Intelligence Through Twenty Questions

from the fun-for-the-whole-cyborg-family dept

Tue, May 2nd 2006 5:09pm — Mike Masnick

Over the years, it seems that the interest in "artificial intelligence" comes and goes in waves -- but there are always a few interesting projects that the press loves to focus in on. A few years ago, it was Cyc, the AI system that people had been feeding info for decades, and which plenty of folks were talking about for a couple of years, but which hasn't receive that much attention lately. It looks like a different, but in some ways similar, project is now getting attention instead. It's the somewhat addictive online version of 20 Questions (which has been around forever) that is being talked about for its AI potential. One interesting element is that the system has become so addictive that the company that put it together has found that it can make money selling a handheld version of the game -- which apparently can figure out what you're thinking of within 20 questions about 80% of the time. It's definitely a neat toy, but the question (as with Cyc) is how useful it is for real world applications. The designer names a few potential applications, such as helping to determine hazardous materials. However, one application that makes sense, diagnosing medical problems, seems to scare him off over liability questions. Still, it is always interesting to see how these projects advance.

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11 Comments

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Joe Smith, 2 May 2006 @ 5:49pm

Creepy
The thing is so accurate it is creepy. I read a story quoting the inventor as saying that he had to dumb the program down or the public would never have been able to beat it.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 May 2006 @ 5:55pm

I can never get it to figure out a cross.
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- blakholephysics, 2 May 2006 @ 9:04pm
  
  Re:
  It seems to think that God is a ghost too.
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Weirdo, 2 May 2006 @ 7:11pm

Freaky
A coworker brought it in. She was being silly and thought of tampon. It got it right.

It always says 'lung' instead of 'brain', though, and we haven't figured out how to make it pick brain. How many words does it know, I wonder?
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Jordan Mitchell, 2 May 2006 @ 7:20pm

Love 20 questions!
My little sister got one for Christmas. We eschewed all our other, more expensive toys and played that thing all day. It got some everyday items, like "trash can" and "wallet". What amazed me, though, is how specific it could be - for instance, instead of just saying "tile", it got "ceramic tile". It determines just enough to be surprisingly fun.

Another application I could think of for something like that would be bird watching, identifying animals, critters, mushrooms, trees, etc. It's like an electronic Dichotomous Key, which have been used for identifying things like that for years.
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mogura, 2 May 2006 @ 7:50pm

20 Questions and Hazmat
My cousin got a 20 questions toy for Christmas. I watched it go around the room and was amazed as it repeatedly matched family members' words. When I got the thing I tried "Plutonium", which it was unable to guess. Honestly that scares me, in light of the depth of safety that hazmat requires. Please don't use computers to do a Geiger counter's job.
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Charlie, 2 May 2006 @ 9:18pm

"It seems to think that God is a ghost too."

What, its smatter than most Americans?
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ViPeRDeSiGnZ, 2 May 2006 @ 9:51pm

""It seems to think that God is a ghost too."

What, its smatter than most Americans?"

hahahaha. its funny, because its true.
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lizard, 2 May 2006 @ 10:12pm

i have had the mobile version for awhile and it is astonishing how well it guesses -- it got chihuaua for cryin' out loud. not just dog, but a specific breed of dog, and this is the version that runs on a cell phone!

of course, if you let two kids play it and they're passing the phone back and forth, and they get confused about what they meant to answer questions for, so one is answering for a whale and the other one, a toaster, you get something in between.

a squirrel, actually.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 May 2006 @ 12:58am

the dang thing couldn't figure out "tennis racket" and then blamed me...look:

You were thinking of a tennis racket.
Do you use it at night? You said Partly, I say No.
Is it brown? You said Sometimes, I say No.

UM, sorry but I play tennis at night all the time!, and i've seen lots of rackets that were brown!
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a n u s, 3 May 2006 @ 4:27am

results
You win, but 20Q did guess it eventually
Play Again
You were thinking of a sphincter.
Does it come in different colours? You said No, I say Probably.
Does it come from something larger? You said Depends, I say Yes.
Does it get really hot? You said Sometimes, I say No.
Is it brown? You said Usually, I say No.
Would you touch it with a 10-foot pole? You said Depends, I say Probably.
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