11TH GRADE ROBOT: Computer scientists from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the University of Washington have created an artificial intelligence software capable of answering SAT geometry questions it had never previously encountered. Their software, GeoSolver, “combine[s] machine vision to understand diagrams with the ability to read and understand complete sentences,” according to The New York Times. The tool then:
“operates by separately generating a series of logical equations, which serve as components of possible answers, from the text and the diagram in the question. It then weighs the accuracy of the equations and tries to discern whether its interpretation of the diagram and text is strong enough to select one of the multiple-choice answers.”
Now, if only we can train students to tackle geometry problems the same way. (Just kidding!)
