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Pigeons are smart as AI
THE pigeon has a brain that rivals artificial intelligence.
A study found the animal is one of the smartest creatures despite inspiring the insult “birdbrain”.
Pigeons were given complex tests that high-level thinking such as logic or reasoning would not solve.
They turned to trial and error, memorising scenarios.
Experts equate it to AI that uses the basic methodology.
Machines are “taught” to identify patterns and objects.
Making associations – lowlevel thinking – is the same.
Prof Ed Wasserman, of the University of Iowa, said: “The pigeons are like AI masters.” Four pigeons were shown a stimulus and had to decide, by pecking a button, on the correct category.
They included line width, angle and concentric rings. A right answer yielded a pellet.
Prof Wasserman said: “These stimuli don’t look like one another and they’re never repeated. You have to memorise individual stimuli to do the task.”
The study in Current Biology said each bird answered about half correctly at the beginning but over hundreds of tests got an average of 68% right.
If people took the test they would likely do badly and give up. They prefer declarative learning, reason using rules. Dolphins and chimps may also use high-level thinking.
■■In May 2020, a pigeon was detained by Indian police on charges of spying for Pakistan.
A pigeon hit by shrapnel helped save a Royal Navy crew by delivering a message after a German U-boat attack in 1917.
A racing pigeon from the Netherlands is the world’s fastest, hitting over 88mph in 2019.