Page 182 - (DK) How to be a GENIUS?

calculators that seem to be able to do things better
than we can. Many products such as cars are even
Mostly they can’t—they simply follow instructions
n from
that have been programmed into them by people
Most of us use machines such as computers and
who do the thinking for them. But we are finding
made by robots. But can these machines think?
r e n

a hundreds of thousands of options before making each move. It does this in seconds, but it’s inefficient compared to an intelligent human a player who, with experience, will explore only the best moves. Yet it’s e n

Computer power
p ways of making computers and robots learn their mistakes, and this is enabling some machines to display a form of intelligence. If you program a computer or robot to play chess, it runs through not the robot’s fault—it’s the way it’s been programmed. A better program might enable it to work more intelligently.

g
s o e h
c

m n

y o y

Tireless robots Many factories now use robots to work on production lines. They are controlled by computers that are programmed with all the instructions for the task. They work fast and they always do it right. The computers never forget anything vital and the robots never get tired. This makes them ideal for complex p but repetitive jobs. But they only do what they are programmed to do, because they don’t know how

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