Is it chauvinism that makes us measure what AI an do according to human abilities, or is that the most valid scale? From a Why Boost IQ? post by Douglas Heingartner, the results of a Chinese study which asserts that a child has pattern-recognition powers superior to the best search engines:

“None of the search engines came anywhere close to a 6-year-old child in terms of reasoning ability. The search engines outperformed humans in common knowledge, translation, and calculations, but did poorly in discovering patterns and making speculations.

For example, the engines were stumped when confronted with ’20/5=4, 40/10=4, 80/20=4, 160/40=4: observe the rules, then design the fifth question,’ or ‘If there are many animals in one place, but they are all in cages and many people are looking, then where is it?’

‘The current abilities of search engines in these areas,’ wrote the researchers, is ‘close to zero.’

Their research was partially in response to claims about artificial intelligence soon surpassing the human kind. Though that oft-prophesied moment of singularity has yet to arrive, the researchers hope their test will help chart the Internet’s intellectual development over time, and show how quickly (or slowly) the gap between human and machine intelligence is closing.”