The Asian Age

‘ AI uncovers how people process abstract thought’

- THE ASIAN AGE

Houston, Oct. 10: Scientists have used artificial intelligen­ce ( AI) to shed light on how humans process abstract learning.

Deep Convolutio­nal Neural Networks, or DCNNs, suggest human knowledge stems from experience, a school of thought known as empiricism, said Cameron Buckner, an assistant professor at the University of Houston in the US.

These neural networks — multi- layered artificial neural networks, with nodes replicatin­g how neurons process and pass along informatio­n in the brain — demonstrat­e how abstract knowledge is acquired, making the networks a useful tool for fields including neuroscien­ce and psychology.

According to the research, published in the journal Synthese, the success of these networks at complex tasks involving perception and discrimina­tion has at times outpaced the ability of scientists to understand how they work.

Researcher­s used AI for abstract reasoning, ranging from strategy games to visual recognitio­n of chairs, artwork and animals, tasks that are surprising­ly complex considerin­g the many potential variations in vantage point, colour, style and other detail.

“Computer vision and machine learning researcher­s have recently noted that triangle, chair, cat, and other everyday categories are so difficult to recognise because they can be encountere­d in a variety of different poses or orientatio­ns that are not mutually similar in terms of their low- level perceptual properties,” Buckner said.

“A chair seen from the front does not look much like the same chair seen from behind or above; we must somehow unify all these diverse perspectiv­es to build a reliable he said.

To overcome the challenges, the systems have to control for so- called nuisance variation, or the range of difference­s that commonly affect a system’s ability to identify objects, sounds and other tasks — size and position, for example, or pitch and tone.

The ability to account for and digest that diversity of possibilit­ies is a hallmark of abstract reasoning.

The DCNNs have also answered another lingering question about abstract reasoning, said the assistant professor at University of Houston.

Empiricist­s have appealed to a faculty of abstractio­n to complete their explanatio­ns of how the mind works, but until now, there hasn’t been a good explanatio­n for how that works. chairdetec­tor,”

Researcher­s used artificial intelligen­ce for abstract reasoning, ranging from strategy games to visual recognitio­n of chairs, artwork and animals, tasks that are surprising­ly complex Empiricist­s have appealed to a faculty of abstractio­n to complete their explanatio­ns of how the mind works, but until now, there hasn’t been a good explanatio­n for how that works

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