20Q
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20Q is a computerized game of twenty questions that began as an experiment in artificial intelligence (AI). It was invented by Robin Burgener.[1]
The game 20Q is either a website[2] or a handheld device based on the spoken parlor game known as twenty questions. 20Q will ask you to think of anything you like and will then try to guess what you're thinking with twenty yes or no questions. If it fails to guess in 20 questions, it will ask an additional 5 questions. If it fails to guess even with 25 questions, the player is declared the winner.
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[edit] Principle and history
The 20Q was created in 1988 as an experiment in artificial intelligence (AI) The principle is that the player thinks of something and the 20Q artificial intelligence asks a series of questions before guessing what the player is thinking. This artificial intelligence learns on its own with the information relayed back to the players who interact with it, and is not programmed. The player can answer these questions with: Yes, No, Unknown, or Sometimes. The experiment is based on the classic word game of Twenty Questions, and on the computer game "Animals," popular in the early 1970s, which used a somewhat simpler method to guess an animal.[3]
The 20Q AI uses a true artificial neural network to pick the questions and to guess. After the player has answered the twenty questions posed (sometimes fewer), 20Q makes a guess. If it is incorrect, it asks more questions, then guesses again. It makes guesses based on what it has learned; it is not programmed with information or what the inventor thinks. Answers to any question are based on players’ interpretations of the questions asked.
The 20Q AI can draw its own conclusions on how to interpret the information. It can be described as more of a folk taxonomy than a taxonomy. Its knowledge develops with every game played. In this regard, the online version of the 20Q AI can be inaccurate due to the fact that it gathers its answers from what people think rather than from what people know. Limitations of taxonomy are often overcome by the AI itself because it can learn and adapt. For example, if the player was thinking of a "Horse" and answered "No" to the question "Is it an animal?," the AI will, nevertheless, guess correctly, despite being told that a horse is not an animal.
As described by the inventor, Robin Burgener, the “Uncommon Knowledge” generated by the A.I. at the end of a game is what it comes up with when something seems odd and it can’t fit it in with what it knows. This makes this A.I. unique—it is beginning to make its own distinctions; it is information the A.I. ‘thinks up’ on its own, generating answers based on what it has learned and what it knows. Over time, its knowledge will become more refined. 20Q learns, and learns to make distinctions, through play—the more times an object is played, the more the artificial intelligence learns about that object. The online 20Q A.I. has about 10,000,000 synaptic connections. Burgener notes that the success rate of the online A.I. is between 73 to 78 per cent. According to Burgener, the real success rate could be higher, but he has adapted the algorithm in order to make it more interesting for the players; if the artificial intelligence won every game, all the time, as it is theoretically capable of doing within a finite framework, it would not be very interesting to play, and the AI would not continue to learn.[4]
Patent applications in the US and Europe were submitted in 2005.[5]
[edit] Modularity of the artificial intelligence
The modular capability of the 20Q artificial intelligence means that it can be embedded in small screen devices. Currently, there is a handheld version of the AI. The device contains a small portion of the original 20Q website knowledge base; unlike the online versions of the game, the handheld version does not have the ability to learn.
The 20Q artificial intelligence is different from less flexible, and extremely large, expert systems. Its modularity, adaptability and scalability means that it can be applied to other, more complex devices, for more complex uses.
[edit] References
- ^ http://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/2006-Spring/announce.burgener.html
- ^ Official 20Q Website
- ^ with information from: LiCalzi O'Connell, Pamela. "Vegetables And Minerals On The Radar" The New York Times. March 27, 2003; Burgener, Robin, computer architect, inventor.
- ^ Burgener, Robin. Computer architect. All numbers are from data provided by the inventor.
- ^ US patent application 102,105 [1] and EP patent 1710735
