Learning to Learn

A key aspect of intelligence is versatility – the capability of doing many different things. Current AI systems excel at mastering a single skill, such as Go, Jeopardy, or even helicopter aerobatics. But, when you instead ask an AI system to do a variety of seemingly simple problems, it will struggle. A champion Jeopardy program cannot hold a conversation, and an expert helicopter controller for aerobatics cannot navigate in new, simple situations such as locating, navigating to, and hovering over a fire to put it out. In contrast, a human can act and adapt intelligently to a wide variety of new, unseen situations.