Prime Time 4, Coursebook

l = This is easy m = This is okay n = This is difficult Reading: What is artificial intelligence? a) Read the text that explains artificial intelligence. To be “intelligent” means that you can do four things one after the other. First, you can see or hear or smell that something is happening. For example, you smell that something is burning, and you can see smoke coming out of a room. Second, you understand what is happening. You understand that what you can see and smell means that there is a fire and that a fire is dangerous. Third, you know what the right thing to do now is. You know that you shouldn’t just walk away from a fire, but that you should sound a fire alarm or tell someone about it. Finally, you know how to do what you think is right. You know how to operate the fire alarm, or you know where to go to tell someone about the fire. These four steps make up what we call “intelligence”. For many years, humans could programme machines and tell them what to do. Human programmers wrote computer software which said something like, “if this and that happens, then do this and that,” for example, “if someone turns on the computer, then ask for a password”. Programmers needed to think of every situation (if) and of everything the computer should do (then). If they forgot something, the computer didn’t know what to do and showed an error message. Nowadays, with the help of “artificial intelligence”, computers or robots can make their own decisions. They can take the four steps that make up intelligence on their own. They have sensors to see or hear or smell something, they can understand what is happening, they know what the right thing to do is, and they can do it on their own. b) Are the following sentences about life in the 1990s true or false? T F 1. “Intelligent” people can do four things in the right order.  2. For step 1 you must be able to read. 3. If something is completely new to you, you might have problems with step 2. 4. People with a good education will do better in step 3. 5. For many years, machines couldn’t make their own decisions. 6. If programmers didn’t work well enough, the computer showed an error message. 7. AI-systems need humans to tell them what to do. 8. “Intelligent” robots or machines need to see or hear what’s going on around them. 9 l m n I can understand a short reading text about an interesting topic. 5 10 15 20 30 3 Unit Intelligent machines Show what you can do kw4z89 thirty Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv