Awkward. Humans are still better than AI at reading the room

Humans, it turns out, are better than current AI models at describing and interpreting social interactions in a moving scene -- a skill necessary for self-driving cars, assistive robots, and other technologies that rely on AI systems to navigate the real world. The research, led by scientists at Johns Hopkins University, finds that artificial intelligence systems fail at understanding social dynamics and context necessary for interacting with people and suggests the problem may be rooted in the infrastructure of AI systems.

"AI for a self-driving car, for example, would need to recognize the intentions, goals, and actions of human drivers and pedestrians. You would want it to know which way a pedestrian is about to start walking, or whether two people are in conversation versus about to cross the street," said lead author Leyla Isik, an assistant professor of cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University.

First reported by ScienceDaily: Relationships.