Artificial Intelligence Thinks like People with Autism

There's a computer on the third floor of Vanderbilt's Featheringill Hall that scans geometric patterns, deciding which missing shapes would be most likely to fit in. It fills in those blanks about as well as a human 17-year-old would, and it's only getting smarter, thanks to a study of the way certain people on the autism spectrum see the world. Inspired by the writings of perhaps the most famous person on the spectrum, Temple Grandin, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Maithilee Kunda figured out how to write code that emulates the kinds of image-based thinking that Grandin used to design complicated farm equipment. The result is a form of artificial intelligence that allows researchers to study a model of human cognition, determine how it problem-solves and then tweak it to perform better. "Most of us think in a combination of lots of different things. We think in words, we think in pictures, we think in smells and feelings," Kunda said.