Not That Bright: Japanese Robot Fails Top-Ranked University Exam

The robot has repeatedly flunked the National Center Test since 2013. The team of creators, including members from the National Institute of Informatics, say they are finally quitting their efforts to make the robot smart enough to pass an entrance exam for admission. Mariella Moon, associate editor of Engadget web magazine, said, "Todai Robot's creators have concluded that since they failed to meet their goal this year, the AI can't become smart enough to get into Tokyo U by their March 2022 target date." It turns out the robot is not good at grasping "meaning in a broad spectrum," said Noriko Arai, a professor at the National Institute of Informatics, who heads the team behind Torobo-kun. Torobu-kun, for instance, did not perform well in English, where it had to link phrases to come to logical conclusions. It received scores of 36.2 in listening and 50.5 in written exams.