Q19 - Research into artificial intelligence

[GeneW]

I picked B as the answer, but hesitated for a moment. Just wondering if it matters that B is the reverse in terms of sufficient and necessary compared to the conclusion in the stimulus?

Thank you in advance.

[christine.defenbaugh]

GeneW, when you say that it's reversed, do you simply mean that it's the contrapositive of the conditional you were expecting? If that's what you mean, then that doesn't matter a bit!

The thing to remember about contrapositives is that they are the logical equivalent to the original statement. So, if you're looking for an answer that says "if you're a pear, you're always a fruit", and you see one that says "if you're not a fruit, you couldn't possibly be a pear", that's your answer!

Another thing to remember about "unless" statements is that there are two different popular ways to translate these:

1) unless = if not
2) unless = then; negate the 'if' clause

So, "The princess will die, unless the hero saves her" would become either:

1) if the hero does not save her, then the princess will die, or
2) if the princess doesn't die, then the hero must have saved her

Both of these are correct translations! And notice, both are contrapositives of each other. They are logically equivalent statements.

Let's break this question down from the top and apply this! For main conclusion questions, it's best to begin with an understanding of the core in order to accurately identify which piece is the final conclusion. Here, we can distill the argument into these pieces:

COUNTERPOINT: We've made progress in computational sophistication
PREMISE: The present focus on computation will produce devices as intelligent as a human devoid of noncognitive responses.
CONCLUSION: Unless the focus is changed, AI research will fail to produce truly intelligent machines.

Depending on your preferred method of translating "unless", (B) is either the conclusion as stated or the contrapositive of it!



Not the Conclusion
(A) This is a perfect restatement of the premise. If you were trapped by this, apply the "therefore test" to the premise and conclusion.
(C) Nothing in the stimulus discusses the objectives of AI research.
(D) This connects the noncognitive abilities referred to in the premise to the determination of true intelligence, which appears in the conclusion. This is an assumption of the argument.
(E) This attempts to connect the same ideas as (D) does, but distorts the relationship.



Does that help clear things up a bit?

[GeneW]

Thank you for the explanations. I got it. Somehow, I thought it was reversed. But when I looked at it again, it was just the contrapositive. Thank you. I appreciate it.