Goalposts

Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?

2016 Marchthangalin

About whether any AI can answer commonsense questions like which object shattered.

This question requires either understanding or experiencing physics: gravity (a force that can cause objects to fall) and properties of glass (brittle) and iron (not brittle). The question also contains certain assumptions. For example, that the (hollow) glass ball is smaller than the (well-constructed, non-rusty) iron table. Lastly, answering this question depends on a deep comprehension of English combined with complex memory abilities.

If someone has solved this particular type of problem (Winograd Schema), I'd be keen to know.

https://www.cs.nyu.edu/davise/papers/WS.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winograd_Schema_Challenge

http://commonsensereasoning.org/problem_page.html

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intel...

An AI reliably answers Winograd Schema questions, like which object shattered when a glass ball fell on an iron table.

Has this happened?

Yes 68 (45%)Not sure 62 (41%)No 20 (13%)

Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.