2021年经济学人 自动驾驶汽车（3）

You could, for instance, ask a car fitted with a reasoning engine why it had hit the brakes, and it would be able to tell you that it thought a bicycle hidden by a van was about to enter the intersection¹ ahead.

例如，如果问一辆装有推理引擎的汽车为什么踩刹车，它会告诉你它认为有一辆藏在货车后面的自行车即将进入前面的十字路口。

A machine-learning program cannot do that.

而机器学习程序无法做到这一点。

Besides helping² improve program design, such information will, Dr Bhatt reckons, help regulators and insurance companies.

巴特博士认为，这些信息除了有助于改进项目设计之外，对监管机构和保险公司也会起到帮助作用。

It may thus speed up public acceptance of autonomous³ vehicles.

因此，它可能会加快公众对自动驾驶汽车的接受程度。

Dr Bhatt's work is part of a long-standing debate in the field of artificial intelligence.

巴特博士的工作在人工智能领域长期备受争论。

Early AI researchers, working in the 1950s, chalked up some successes using this sort of preprogrammed reasoning.

20世纪50年代的早期人工智能研究人员使用这种预编程推理取得了一些成功。

But, beginning in the 1990s, machine learning improved dramatically, thanks to better programming techniques combined with more powerful computers and the availability of more data.

但是，从20世纪90年代开始，由于更好的编程技术、更强大的计算机以及更多数据的可用性，机器学习得到了显著改善。

Today almost all AI is based on it.

今天，几乎所有的人工智能都基于机器学习。

Dr Bhatt is not, though, alone in his scepticism.

不过，巴特博士并不是唯一持怀疑态度的人。

Gary Marcus, who studies psychology⁴ and neural⁵ science at New York University and is also the boss of an AI and robotics company called Robust⁶.AI, agrees.

加里·马库斯在纽约大学研究心理学和神经科学，他也是一家名为Robust.AI的人工智能和机器人公司的老板。

To support his point of view, Dr Marcus cites a much-publicised result, albeit⁷ from eight years ago.

为了支持他的观点，马库斯博士引用了一个8年前被广泛报道的结果。

This was when engineers at DeepMind (then an independent company, now part of Google) wrote a program that could learn, without being given any hints about the rules, how to play Breakout, a video game which involves hitting a moving virtual ball with a virtual paddle.

当时，DeepMind(当时是一家独立公司，现在隶属于谷歌)的工程师编写了一个程序，可以在不需要任何规则提示的情况下学习如何玩Breakout，这是一款电子游戏，需要用虚拟球拍击打移动中的虚拟球。

DeepMind's program was a great player.

DeepMind的程序是一个杰出的玩家。

But when another group of researchers tinkered with Breakout's code—shifting the location of the paddles by just a few pixels—its abilities plummeted⁸.

但是，当另一组研究人员对Breakout的代码进行修改，将电板的位置稍稍改变了几个像素后，它的能力便一落千丈。

It was not able to generalise what it had learned from a specific situation even to a situation that was only slightly different.

它无法将自己从某个特定情境中学到的东西应用到即便只是略微不同的情形中。

For Dr Marcus, this example highlights the fragility of machine-learning.

对马库斯博士来说，这个例子凸显了机器学习的脆弱性。

But others think it is symbolic⁹ reasoning which is brittle¹⁰, and that machine learning still has a lot of mileage¹¹ left in it.

但也有人认为符号推理才是脆弱的，而机器学习还有很大的进步空间。

Among them is Jeff Hawke, vice-president of technology at Wayve, a self-driving-car firm in London.

伦敦的自动驾驶汽车公司Wayve的技术副总裁杰夫·霍克就是其中之一。

Wayve's approach is to train the software elements running a car's various components¹² simultaneously¹³, rather than separately.

Wayve的方法是对驱动汽车各个部件的软件同时开展训练，而不是分别训练。

In demonstrations¹⁴, Wayve's cars make good decisions while navigating¹⁵ narrow, heavily trafficked London streets—a task that challenges many humans.

在演示中，Wayve的汽车在狭窄、拥挤的伦敦街道上行驶时做出了正确的决定——这对于人类驾驶员来说往往也颇具挑战。

1 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 neural   

adj.神经的，神经系统的

参考例句：

• The neural network can preferably solve the non- linear problem.利用神经网络建模可以较好地解决非线性问题。
• The information transmission in neural system depends on neurotransmitters.信息传递的神经途径有赖于神经递质。

6 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

7 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

8 plummeted   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Share prices plummeted to an all-time low. 股票价格暴跌到历史最低点。
• A plane plummeted to earth. 一架飞机一头栽向地面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。

10 brittle   

adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的

参考例句：

• The pond was covered in a brittle layer of ice.池塘覆盖了一层易碎的冰。
• She gave a brittle laugh.她冷淡地笑了笑。

11 mileage   

n.里程，英里数；好处，利润

参考例句：

• He doesn't think there's any mileage in that type of advertising.他认为做那种广告毫无效益。
• What mileage has your car done?你的汽车跑了多少英里？

12 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

13 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

14 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

15 navigating   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的现在分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• These can also be very useful when navigating time-based documents, such as video and audio. 它对于和时间有关的文档非常有用，比如视频和音频文档。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Vehicles slowed to a crawl on city roads, navigating slushy snow. 汽车在市区路上行驶缓慢，穿越泥泞的雪地。 来自互联网