Universal wants to assess IQ test of artificial intelligence

Metric of artificial intelligence
 
Are artificial intelligence systems today actually more intelligent than those designed 20 years ago?
And how to determine whether robots or systems designed to extract information from digital libraries are actually becoming more intelligent?
The answers to these questions are crucial, among other situations, to determine whether there are real gains to update the version of an artificial intelligence system.
And in the future, may represent a metric for assessing whether a new generation of robot assistants is actually more intelligent than the old robot that has helped him so many years.

Universal Intelligence Test
 
To help answer such questions, researchers look for what they call the Universal Intelligence Test.
According to the theorists, there are several essential elements to characterize an intelligence test truly universal.
Everything starts with a test that can be applied to any subject, be it biological or not.
The second requirement is that it can be applied to the subject at any stage of their development. If a biological being, the test should also work for children and adults, if a non-biological, the test should be applicable to any version of "mechanism".
It should also be ensured that the test does not become obsolete: to be universal, it should be used for any subject or system, now and in the future.
The universal test of intelligence should not be prejudiced: he must be able to measure any level of intelligence on a scale from zero to genius.
Finally, the test is incremental and conclusive on any point in your application - in other words, it should be possible to stop the test at any time and still have been a reasonable measure of intelligence.

Calculation of complexity
 
This characteristic of a test that can be interrupted at any moment is particularly challenging because it is very different from the current psychometric tests used by psychologists, or even tests of intelligence, as the Turing test.
But it is not something impossible to do. At least that is what is concluded in a paper presented by José Hernández-Orallo, Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain) and David Dowe, Monash University (Australia).
"We have developed an intelligence test that can be interrupted at any time, but it gives a more precise idea of ​​the intelligence of the subject tested if there is more time available to accomplish it," say the researchers.
They used interactive exercises in environments with a difficulty level estimated by calculating the so-called "Kolmogorov Complexity", an indicator that measures the number of computational resources needed to describe an object or a block of information.
The use of mathematical and computational tools for structuring the test makes it conceptually very different from traditional tests that result in intelligence quotient.

Human paradigm
 
According to the researchers, this test is the first approach to something that allows you to systematically assess the progress of artificial intelligence systems, checking, for example, if indeed there is more intelligence built into an existing system than in a previous version or a system 20 years ago.
Even to the theory, however, still failed to overcome the "human paradigm": there is no theoretical concept that trace the course to assess whether a system would have more intelligence than human intelligence.
"The universal and unified assessment of intelligence, whether human, animal non-human, alien or artificial, was not being approached from a scientific point of view so far, and this [our work] is a first step," concludes researchers.

Electronic extreme: transistor operates with a single electron

Writing Site Innovation - 20/04/2011

An international research team, featuring Brazilian, has created a single electron transistor - or, rather, at most two electrons.The research is in a border area between traditional electronics and quantum computing.In theory, the single electron transistor could be useful both for creating ultra-dense memories, leading to miniaturization to another level, and function as a qubit for a quantum computer.Isle of electronsIn 2006, the team of Professor Jeremy Levy of the University of Pittsburgh, has created germanium quantum dots that were placed on a silicon substrate with a precision of 2 nm, were capable of confining single electrons.In 2009, the group created a universal platform for making electronic components with dimensions close to the atomic scale.Now they all ingredients together and created an island of electrons "measuring just 1.5 nanometers in diameter.The island becomes the center of the single electron transistor when it receives one or two residents - one or two electrons.The electrons are taken there by nanowires, which act as the electrodes of the transistor. The number of trapped electrons - which can only be zero, one or two - change the conduction properties of the device.This allows the component to function as an artificial atom, of great interest in the field of quantum computing.Electric sensor and forceElectrons tunneling from one wire to another over the island. The voltage on the third wire controls the conductive properties of the site, causing the electron to tunnel or not - hence its functioning as a transistorThe main advantage of single electron transistor is its extreme sensitivity to an electric charge, making it potentially an electric sensor with an unprecedented level of precision.The component is ferroelectric, meaning that it can function as a solid state memory that does not lose data in the absence of electricity.Ferroelectricity also makes the transistor sensitive to pressure at the nanoscale, making it potentially useful as a force sensor.Electronic extreme: transistor operates with a single electronElectrons tunneling from one wire to another across the island, which can function as a transistor, as an artificial atom or as a sensor of electrical charge or force. [Image: Cheng et al. / Nature Nanotechnology]Single electron transistorsScientists have already managed to build single electron transistors (see transistor is operating with a single electron transistor Created and powered by a single electron) and even a mechanical transistor controlled by a single electron.The field also includes a call atomotrônica atomic transistor, which forms a bridge between computation and quantum electronics.This research is distinguished by the material used - this is the first single electron transistor made entirely of oxides - and the manufacturing technique.But this fabrication technique is away from that with which traditional transistors are made in factories, scientists use the thin tip of a atomic force microscope to manipulate atoms at the interface between a crystal of strontium titanate film and an aluminate lanthanum.