Sept. 3 , 2002

Artificial Intelligence With a Certified IQ

	Trish Galvin

In the quest to create a machine that will outsmart the most intelligent human, Selmer Bringsjord has developed the first-known robot capable of passing part of a standard IQ test. Bringsjord is director of the Rensselaer Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Lab and is professor and chair of the Department of Cognitive Science.

"PERI" (psychometric experimental robotic intelligence) is a three-foot-tall artificial intelligence system equipped with a gripper and vision. PERI can reason, see, and physically manipulate objects.

To test PERI's intelligence, Bringsjord used a section of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, one of the gold standards in IQ testing. PERI passed the exam with a perfect score. That's something few people achieve.

The section used, called the "Block Design," is a timed-performance exam that uses cards with printed designs. Presented with red and white plastic blocks, the participant is instructed to arrange the blocks to match each card design. Each succeeding design is more difficult to match.

PERI computed the arrangement of each design in a fraction of a second. Using its eye and gripper, the robot then placed each block in the appropriate pattern.

The machine could allow cognitive scientist to see what does — or doesn't — constitute the mind of a genius, Bringsjord says.

"Though we can use statistics to gauge difficulty in standardized tests, such as the SAT and LSAT, we really don't know what is going on inside the brains of humans who take these exams," says Bringsjord, who is working on the project with graduate student Bettina Schimanski.

The researchers are still developing PERI to outperform its human counterpart in other sections of the IQ test. For instance, PERI can't arrange pictures to tell a story in chronological order, with each scene building on the previous one.