A Machine Finishes Your Sentence

Nov. 18, 2018, New-York. The full paper by By Cade Metz, in the New York Times.

Abstract:

" In August, researchers from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a lab based in Seattle, unveiled an English test for computers. It examined whether machines could complete sentences like this one:

"On stage, a woman takes a seat at the piano. She
a) sits on a bench as her sister plays with the doll.
b) smiles with someone as the music plays.
c) is in the crowd, watching the dancers.
d) nervously sets her fingers on the keys.

"For you, that would be an easy question. But for a computer, it was pretty hard. While humans answered more than 88 percent of the test questions correctly, the lab’s A.I. systems hovered around 60 percent. Among experts — those who know just how difficult it is to build systems that understand natural language — that was an impressive number.

"Then, two months later, a team of Google researchers unveiled a system called Bert. Its improved technology answered those questions just as well as humans did — and it was not even designed to take the test.