The text explores the history and limitations of question-answering AI systems.
It begins by examining the aspirational Star Trek computer and
contrasts that ideal with the capabilities of current virtual assistants
like Alexa and Siri. The central focus then shifts to IBM's Watson,
detailing its Jeopardy! victory and subsequent, less successful
applications in fields like medicine. The text further analyzes the
shortcomings of current AI in truly understanding language, using
examples like the Stanford Question Answering Dataset (SQuAD) and
Winograd schemas to illustrate the gap between impressive performance on
specific tasks and genuine comprehension. Finally, the text discusses
the vulnerability of NLP systems to adversarial attacks, where subtle
manipulations can lead to incorrect outputs despite seeming unchanged to
humans.
