Button-pushing explorers: How to grasp that AI agents can do amazing things while knowing nothing

Today’s AI systems are powerful, and it’s natural to see them as having humanlike intelligence. Shaking that illusion is important – and difficult to do.

By: Ji Y. Son, California State University, Los Angeles and Alice Xu, University of California, Los Angeles, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: May 12, 2026

Words: 1,505

Last Updated: 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Body Text Preview

By Ji Y. Son, California State University, Los Angeles and Alice Xu, University of California, Los Angeles

The nonprofit ARC Prize Foundation on May 1, 2026, released the results of a new benchmark: a test of an AI system’s ability to solve a game. The results were striking – humans scored 100%, while the most advanced AI systems scored under 1%.

At first glance, this may be surprising to users of AI who are …

Create a free account to access this story and more

Join Plucky Wire to access full stories, collaborate with newsrooms, and discover content from networks around the world.

About

FAQ

Email Us