Is that chatbot smarter than a 4-year-old? Experts put it to the test.

Laura Schulz has spent her career trying to unravel one of the most profound human mysteries: how children think and learn. Earlier this year, the MIT cognitive psychologist found herself baffled by her latest test subject’s struggles.

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“One thing that seems to be really important for natural intelligence, biological intelligence, is the fact that organisms evolved to go out into the real world and find out about it, do experiments, move around in the world,” said Alison Gopnik, a developmental psychologist at the University of California at Berkeley.

She has recently become interested in whether a missing ingredient in AI systems is a motivational goal that any parent who has engaged in a battle of wills with a toddler will know well: the drive for “empowerment.”

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