Could you score an'A' on an eighth-grade science test? If so, you're in the same league as Aristo, an artificial intelligence system whose remarkable language and logic skills highlight recent progress in the A.I. industry. For context: Four years ago, some 700 computer scientists competed for $80,000 to develop an A.I. that could merely pass an eighth-grade science test. None scored higher than 60 percent. But now, thanks to improved "language models" driven by neural networks, systems like Aristo are becoming much better at predicting language and understanding how to apply it to solve logic-based tasks. Aristo, as The New York Times notes, is built on a neural-network technology called Bert, developed by Google.

Four years ago, more than 700 computer scientists competed in a contest to build artificial intelligence that could pass an eighth-grade science test. There was $80,000 in prize money on the line. Even the most sophisticated system couldn't do better than 60% on the test. AI couldn't match the language and logic skills that students are expected to have when they enter high school. But Wednesday, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a prominent lab in Seattle, unveiled a new system that passed the test with room to spare.

The world's top research labs are rapidly improving a machine's ability to understand and respond to natural language. Machines are getting better at analyzing documents, finding information, answering questions and even generating language of their own. Aristo was built solely for multiple-choice tests. It took standard exams written for students in New York, though the Allen Institute removed all questions that included pictures and diagrams. Answering questions like that would have required additional skills that combine language understanding and logic with so-called computer vision.

With respect to artificial intelligence, some people are squarely in the "optimist" camp, believing that we are "nearly there" as far as producing human-level intelligence. Microsoft co-founder's Paul Allen has been somewhat more prudent: While we have learned a great deal about how to build individual AI systems that do seemingly intelligent things, our systems have always remained brittle--their performance boundaries are rigidly set by their internal assumptions and defining algorithms, they cannot generalize, and they frequently give nonsensical answers outside of their specific focus areas. So Allen does not believe that we will see human-level artificial intelligence in this century. But he nevertheless generously created a foundation aiming to develop such human-level intelligence, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence Science. The Institute is lead by Oren Etzioni who obviously shares some of Allen's "pessimistic" views.

With respect to artificial intelligence, some people are squarely in the "optimist" camp, believing that we are "nearly there" as far as producing human-level intelligence. Microsoft co-founder's Paul Allen has been somewhat more prudent: While we have learned a great deal about how to build individual AI systems that do seemingly intelligent things, our systems have always remained brittle--their performance boundaries are rigidly set by their internal assumptions and defining algorithms, they cannot generalize, and they frequently give nonsensical answers outside of their specific focus areas. So Allen does not believe that we will see human-level artificial intelligence in this century. But he nevertheless generously created a foundation aiming to develop such human-level intelligence, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence Science. The Institute is lead by Oren Etzioni who obviously shares some of Allen's "pessimistic" views.