---
title: "Scientists Are Using Pictionary to Teach “Common Sense” to AI"
description: "To teach artificial intelligence to understand context and common sense, researchers are training it to play an online version of Pictionary."
date: "2019-02-05"
modified: "2019-02-05"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/ai-common-sense-pictionary"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "ai"
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "machine learning"
---

# Scientists Are Using Pictionary to Teach “Common Sense” to AI

![To teach artificial intelligence to understand context and common sense, researchers are training it to play an online version of Pictionary.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ai-common-sense-pictionary.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Iconary\</em\>*

## Common Sense

Artificial intelligence has made incredible strides analyzing data to find obscure patterns, but it still [can’t come anywhere near](<https://futurism.com/human-level-artificial-intelligence-agi>) a human understanding of context or common sense.

To help algorithms learn some common sense, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence has created an unusual task: pitting machine learning algorithms against humanity in a game of online Pictionary, [according to the *MIT Technology Review*](<https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612882/an-ai-is-playing-pictionary-to-figure-out-how-the-world-works/>).

## Art Computer

The program, called Iconary, went online on Tuesday — and you can [play it here](<https://iconary.allenai.org/>).

The basic idea is that human players are presented with a simple phrase or description to draw. The algorithm then analyzes the drawingto guess the phrase. But the big-picture idea is to gain a nuanced understanding of artistic context to give future AI an element of common sense.

"You’ve got to use a lot of sophisticated reasoning," Ali Farhadi, an Allen Institute researcher who helped develop the project, told *MIT Tech*. "It actually teaches common sense."

## Easy Mode

For now, though, human players have to make concessions. When I tried a round of Iconary, I was excited at the prospect of an algorithm that would be able to make sense of my doodles, given that [handwriting recognition is a major benchmark](<https://futurism.com/vatican-secret-archives-ai-texts>) of AI progress.

Instead, I learned that I couldn’t submit my drawing until I converted each component into a suggested emoji-like picture. I was given the phrase "man chopping wood," for instance, so I doodled a stick figure holding an axe that was wedged into a log. It was crude and ugly, but hey, that's the fun of Pictionary, right? But I couldn't submit my drawing for the AI system's review as it was.

Instead I had to start over, drawing the phrase piece-by-piece. After drawing a stick figure, I had to select a bathroom-door-style man from a dropdown menu. I then did the same for pictures of an axe and a tree, which I placed roughly in the man’s hand and next to him, respectively.

At this point, the game was less Pictionary and more "decode this string of emojis" — and the algorithm still messed up, guessing things like "man chopping a tree," and "man chopping a branch" before giving up.

It finally reached the right answer, however, when I clicked and dragged the provided image for “wood” and dropped it haphazardly on the screen.

Needless to say, I think the art world is still safe from automation.

**READ MORE:** [An AI is playing Pictionary to figure out how the world works](<https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612882/an-ai-is-playing-pictionary-to-figure-out-how-the-world-works/>) \[*MIT Technology Review*\]

***More on AI: You Have No Idea What Artificial Intelligence Really Does***

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)