United States: A new study has stated that pigeons’s way of problem-solving matches artificial intelligence (AI). It has previously been found that pigeons are highly intelligent animals that can remember faces, see the world in vivid colours, navigate complex routes, deliver news, and even save lives.
In the new study, 24 pigeons were given a variety of visual tasks, some of which they learned to categorise in days and others in weeks. The researchers noted that the mechanism through which pigeons make correct choices is similar to the method that AI models use to make the right predictions.
“Pigeon behaviour suggests that nature has created an algorithm that is highly effective in learning very challenging tasks. Not necessarily with the greatest speed, but with great consistency,” Mr. Edward Wasserman, study co-author and professor of experimental psychology at the University of Iowa, commented.
During the study, pigeons were shown different stimuli on screen, like lines of different width, placement, and orientation, as well as sectioned and concentric rings. Each bird had to peck a button on the right or left to decide which category they belonged to. If they got it correct, they got food, and if they got it wrong, they got nothing.
According to Mr. Brandon Turner, lead author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University, “pigeons don’t need a rule.” Instead, they learn through trial and error.
The study noted that over the course of the experiments, pigeons improved their ability to make the right choices from 55 percent to 95 percent of the time when it came to some of the simpler tasks. Their accuracy went up from 55 percent to 68 percent when presented with a more complex challenge.
In an AI model, the main goal is to recognise patterns and make decisions. As per the new research, pigeons can do the same. When not given a food pellet, pigeons have a remarkable ability to correct their errors.
“With just those two mechanisms alone, you can define a neural network or an artificially intelligent machine to basically solve these categorization problems. It stands to reason that the mechanisms that are present in the AI are also present in the pigeon,” Mr. Turner observed.
“Maybe we can get some further insight into what is going on in that little bird brain. It’s a damn good brain—it may be small in size, but it packs a punch when it comes to the capacity to learn,” Mr. Wasserman further remarked.
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