The system at Carnegie Mellon University is called NEIL, short for Never Ending Image Learning. In mid-July, it began searching the Internet for images 24/7 and, in tiny steps, is deciding for itself how those images relate to each other. The goal is to recreate what we call common sense -- the ability to learn things without being specifically taught.
"Could a giraffe fit in your car," she asked. "We'd have an answer, even though we haven't thought about it" in the sense of calculating a giraffe's body mass.