At the 2017 TED Conference this past April, AI expert Noriko Arai gave a talk presenting her Todai Robot, a machine that has been programmed to take the entrance exam to Japan's most prestigious university, Tokyo University.
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A robot did better than 80% of students on the University of Tokyo entrance exam
Artificial intelligence can't understand meaning or emotion just yet, but it can write a pretty good essay on 17th-century maritime trade.
While Arai discovered Todai didn't pass muster to gain acceptance, the robot still beat 80% of the students taking the exam, which consisted of seven sections, including math, English, science, and a 600-word essay writing portion.
But it wasn't necessarily cause for celebration, Arai said. "Instead, I was alarmed."
"So we have to think about a new type of education," Arai said, one in which kids are taught not just to deposit facts, but also to analyze and think critically about them. "How we humans will coexist with AI is something we have to think about carefully, based on solid evidence. At the same time, we have to think in a hurry because time is running out."
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