New A.I. Shows Signs of Human Reasoning

From a New York Times story by Cade Metz headlined “Microsoft Says New A.I. Shows Signs of Human Reasoning”:

When computer scientists at Microsoft started to experiment with a new artificial intelligence system last year, they asked it to solve a puzzle that should have required an intuitive understanding of the physical world.

“Here we have a book, nine eggs, a laptop, a bottle and a nail,” they asked. “Please tell me how to stack them onto each other in a stable manner.”