In pursuit of artificial intelligence with a human mind

"I was determined to do it precisely because I was told it was impossible." So says Yasuo Kuniyoshi, professor at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, in a quiet tone. However, the sharp glint in his eye betrays his grand ambition of developing a truly clever artificial intelligence to benefit humankind. Existing AI (Top) Self-driving cars most likely will one day be able to take people to their destination by recognizing simple instructions like, "Take me to the University of Tokyo." Because existing AI does not think the same way humans do, it cannot adapt to situations that are not in its playbook. Some current forms of artificial intelligence (AI), such as speech recognition and automated driving, are just as competent as humans--if not better--at carrying out their given tasks (figure 1).