After AI, Monkeys Defeat Humans At A Simple Computer Game

Can you believe that Monkeys are wiser than humans? Well, it is a shocking truth for all of us. This was recently established in research conducted by researchers at Georgia State University.

The research was conducted on pitting Capuchin and Rhesus macaque monkeys where the monkeys played against human beings in a simple computer game. The objective of the game is to find a specific strategic solution for a given problem. 56 humans, 22 capuchin monkeys, and 7 rhesuses were part of the research as participants.

The conclusion of the research was fascinating. The results say that Monkeys are more efficient and innovative in finding and making strategic solutions than we humans. Humans are inefficient than monkeys in solving their problems strategically.

If you have ever played computer games like chess or cards, you might be defeated many times by AI but this is the first time when Monkeys are taking over humans and that too in a simple computer game.

Game in The Research

In this game, both Humans and Monkeys were taught a pattern before starting the game. The pattern was like, first, they have to push the striped square, then a dotted square and then a triangle. To display the score it showed points for humans to win and for Monkeys pellet of Bananas.

IMG – nature.com

When both the parties learned what to do, the game twisted and started showing the option to pull the triangle. It skipped the striped and dotted square. The conclusion was Monkeys took the smart move whereas 61% of humans failed. 70% of Monkeys did it the first time. There was only a single human being who did it correctly.

Results of The Research

The results of the research, based on playing a simple game, is quite unexpected. It was observed that humans were just following the taught pattern while Monkeys adopt the strategy applying their brain.

When asked the opinion of Waztek, who is the lead author of research papers said that, “There’s a heavy reliance on rote learning and doing it the way you were taught and to specifically not take the shortcut,”

The game didn’t stop there. Most of the human beings who were shown the videos of other players, adopted the strategic approach while 30% of human beings were still following the learned approach.

The Ultimate Conclusion

This research was undertaken to find out whether humans were able to apply their strategic mind or not. Conclusively, from the research conducted it wouldn’t be wrong to say that human beings follow the set pattern and rules only. This prevents them to make better decisions.

You can read the full research paper here.

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