Training_AI.mp3
Training_AI.pdf
BBC LEARNING ENGLISH
6 Minute English
Training Artificial Intelligence
Neil
Hello This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English I’m Neil
Sam
And I’m Sam
Neil
Do you like cooking, Sam? There’s a new recipe I’ve been trying out - it’s for
‘frosted oysters’
Sam
Frosted oysters?! Sounds… unusual How do you make it?
Neil
Well, take a pound of chicken, then some cubed pork and half a crushed garlic
Sam
Eh? I thought you said it was for ‘frosted oysters’, whatever they are
Neil
Yes, that’s right Now heat it up until boiling and serve with custard
Sam
?Ugh, that sounds disgusting! Who on earth told you that recipe
Neil
It’s not ‘who’ told me, Sam, but ‘what’ In fact, that recipe was made by
computers using artificial intelligence, or AI, which is the topic of today’s
programme In real life, AI is making huge progress - from car satnavs to
detecting cancer cells But as you can see from that revolting recipe, things don’t
always go according to plan
Sam
So, just how intelligent is artificial intelligence? I mean, it definitely needs some
cooking lessons!
Neil
Right AI is not as intelligent as we tend to think AI programmes use artificial
brain cells to roughly imitate real brain cell activity, but they’re still a long way
behind human levels of intelligence And that’s my quiz question – in terms of
brain cell count, what level of intelligence is AI currently working at? Is AI as
smart as:
a) a frog
b) an earthworm
c) a bumblebee
Sam
Well, I don’t think any of those are good cooks either, to be honest I’ll say c) a
bumblebee, because at least they can make honey!
Neil
Nice guess, Sam We’ll find out the answer later But first let’s find out more
about how AI misunderstandings like the oyster recipe can happen Janelle
Shane is the author of ‘You Look Like a Thing and I Love You’ in which she tells
her amusing experiences and bizarre experiments with AI
Sam
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You – that’s a strange title for a book, Neil
Neil
Yes It’s another example of AI miscommunication The book title is what a AI
produced when asked to write chat-up lines – remarks men and women make to
start up a conversation with someone they don’t know but find attractive
Here she is talking to the BBC World Service programme More or Less:
Janelle Shane
‘Machine learning’ is what most programmers mean when they say ‘AI’ In the
programme that we’re used to, if you want to have a computer programme solve
a problem you have to have a human programmer write down exhaustive step[1]by-step instructions on how to do everything But with ‘machine learning’ you
just give it the goal, and then the programme figures out via trial and error how
it’s going to solve that problem
Sam
So even though we’re talking about machines learning for themselves, there still
need to be humans involved at the start of the journey This human teaching is
done by computer programmers – people who write, or code, the computer
programmes used by AI
Neil
Right These programmers write algorithms – a set of rules or procedures to be
followed in problem-solving exercises So, for example, the AI that wrote that
oyster recipe read thousands of other recipes before coming up with its own
version
Sam
In other words, artificial intelligence uses a process of trial and error – repeating
the same task over and over until finding the most successful way Only in the
case of the oyster recipe, there was more ‘error’ than ‘trial’!
Neil
Well, according to Janelle Shane, we can learn a lot about something by seeing
how it goes wrong Here she is, talking about an AI which had been told to solve
maths problems:
Janelle Shane
It seemed to be that it was getting scored on how many wrong answers it got,
and it was supposed to be minimising the number of wrong answers, and just by
a stroke of luck as part of its trial and error flailing around, one of the flails it did
accidentally deleted the solutions list, and then it and everybody else got a
perfect score
Sam
So, AIs learn by minimising their errors – reducing them as much as possible And
sometimes, these algorithms only discover the right answer by a stroke of luck –
when something unexpected happens by good luck or chance It seems to me
that they’re not so intelligent after all!
Neil
Well, let’s settle it once and for all by answering today’s quiz question
Remember I asked you how intelligent AI was in terms of brain cell count and you
said, as intelligent as…
Sam
I said c) a bumblebee
Neil
Well, here’s Janelle again with the answer…
Janelle Shane
If you’re looking at rough computing power, the algorithms we’re working with
are probably somewhere around the level of an earthworm
Sam
So, the correct answer was b) as clever as an earthworm! No wonder AIs can’t
cook!
Neil
Or take a maths test without cheating! In this programme we’ve been looking at
artificial intelligence, or AI, and seeing how programmers – that’s people who
write instructions for computers to follow create algorithms – sets of rules used
in problem-solving
Sam
AI learns through trial and error – repeating the same activity again and again
until discovering the best way, and minimising – reducing as much as possible,
the number of errors it makes
Neil
And success can be the result of a stroke of luck, when something unexpected
happens purely by chance, although so far that hasn’t helped AIs to write good
chat-up lines – the flattering remarks people make to get to know someone they
find attractive
Sam
And AIs don’t know much about cooking oysters either!
Neil
That’s all from us from this programme Be sure to join us again for more topical
discussion and vocabulary at 6 Minute English for BBC Learning English Bye for
now!
Sam
Bye
VOCABULARY
chat-up lines
remarks men and women make to start up a romantic conversation with
someone they don’t know but find attractive
computer programmers
people who write, or code, computer programmes
algorithms
a set of rules or procedures to be followed by computers in problem-solving
exercises
trial and error
repeating the same task over and over until finding the most successful way
minimising
reducing as much as possible
a stroke of luck
when something unexpected happens by good luck or chance
