Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart AIs Are?—Asterisk

Scientists have repeatedly failed to recognize the complexity of animal cognition. Will we make the same mistakes with AI?

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart AIs Are?—Asterisk Scientists have repeatedly failed to recognize the complexity of animal cognition. Will we make the same mistakes with AI? Animals think about a lot more than we once gave them credit for. It’s now common to read about chimpanzees that play elaborate social games, scrub jays that hide — even camouflage — food from rivals, or bees that can learn abstract rules. But as recently as the middle of the 20th century, attributing mental states to animals was taboo in science. Behaviorists studied simple and controlled behaviors — press a lever, r

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