A technique to improve machine learning inspired by the behavior of human infants

From their first years of life, human beings have the innate ability to learn continuously and build mental models of the world, simply by observing and interacting with things or people in their surroundings. Cognitive psychology studies suggest that humans make extensive use of this previously acquired knowledge, particularly when they encounter new situations or when making decisions. Despite the significant recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), most virtual agents still require hundreds of hours of training to achieve human-level performance in several tasks, while humans can learn how to complete these tasks in a few hours or less. Recent studies have highlighted two key contributors to humans' ability to acquire knowledge so quickly--namely, intuitive physics and intuitive psychology. These intuition models, which have been observed in humans from early stages of development, might be the core facilitators of future learning.