Terry Prone: Badger-licking test proves AI is not as smart as it’s cracked up to be
Greg Jenner tested Google’s AI capacity by typing in a nonsense phrase he made up plus the word ‘meaning’, and it treated ‘you can’t lick a badger twice’ as if it were a wise old proverb or seanfhocal. File picture
The only badger I ever met was named Bill, a great friend of Rupert Bear, and you can figure that our encounter might have been a while back. He did leave a good impression, though, did Bill Badger, who was well brought up, reliable, and a total gent. So it came as a surprise to know that licking a badger is a thing. Indeed, licking a badger twice could be described as a thingX2.
The actual phrase — the sort of thing you’d expect to find in folklore because folklore is full of that kind of bilge — goes like this: “You can’t lick a badger twice.”
