An AI algorithm passed a science test. Here's what you should know.

This article is part of Demystifying AI, a series of posts that (try to) disambiguate the jargon and myths surrounding AI. Last week, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) introduced Aristo, an artificial intelligence model that scored above 90 percent on an 8th grade science test and 80 percent on a 12th-grade exam. Passing a science test might sound mundane, if you're not familiar with how deep learning algorithms, the current bleeding edge of AI, work. After all, AI is already performing tasks such as diagnosing cancer, detecting fraud and playing complicated games, which are much more complicated than answering simple science questions about the moon and squirrel populations. But despite its fascinating achievements, deep learning struggles when it comes to tackling problems that require reasoning and commonsense.