Cambridge 18 | Test 2 | Passage 2

Living with artificial intelligence

This has been the decade of AI, with one astonishing feat after another. A chess-playing AI that can defeat not only all human chess players, but also all previous human-programmed chess machines, after learning the game in just four hours? That’s yesterday’s news, what’s next? True, these prodigious accomplishments are all in so-called narrow AI, where machines perform highly specialized tasks. But many experts believe this restriction is very temporary. By mid-century, we may have artificial general intelligence (AGI)—machines that can achieve human-level performance on the full range of tasks that we ourselves can tackle.

defeat (verb) [transitive]

1: to win against someone in a fight, war, or competition

2: to stop something from being successful

Scientists from around the world are working to defeat the disease.

yesterday's news

something or someone that was popular once, but is not popular now

That actor is yesterday's news.

prodigious (adjective)

/prəˈdɪdʒ.əs/

very large or powerful and causing surprise; impressive

Americans are the world’s most prodigious consumers.