LSAT 138 – Section 2 – Question 19

LSAT 138 - Section 2 - Question 19

December 2012

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT138 S2 Q19
+LR
Main conclusion or main point +MC
Conditional Reasoning +CondR
A
9%
159
B
85%
165
C
2%
155
D
2%
154
E
3%
157
136
146
156
 +Medium 147.395 +SubsectionMedium

Research into artificial intelligence will fail to produce truly intelligent machines unless the focus of the discipline is radically changed. Progress has been made in creating devices of tremendous computational sophistication, but the present focus on computational ability to the exclusion of other abilities will produce devices only as capable of displaying true intelligence as a human being would be who was completely devoid of emotional and other noncognitive responses.

Summarize Argument
If scientists keep focusing only on making artificial intelligence really good at solving problems, they won't be able to create truly smart machines. Right now, scientists are focusing solely on computational ability and ignoring other abilities. A machine that can only compute but does nothing else won't be truly intelligent, just like a person with no emotions wouldn't be fully smart.

Identify Conclusion
The argument’s main conclusion is that if the focus of artificial intelligence research is not broadened beyond improving machines' computational ability, then such research will not produce truly intelligent machines.

A
The current focus of research into artificial intelligence will produce devices no more capable of displaying true intelligence than a person would be who lacked emotions and other noncognitive responses.
This is a premise. It supports the conclusion by highlighting the limitations of focusing only on computational ability in AI research. It suggests that ignoring other skills will result in devices as limited as a person lacking emotions, underscoring the need for broader focus.
B
If the current focus of research into artificial intelligence is not radically changed, this research will not be able to produce machines capable of true intelligence.
This captures the argument’s main conclusion. It paraphrases its central point: without a significant shift in the current focus of artificial intelligence research, which is too narrowly centered on computational ability, researchers will not create truly intelligent machines.
C
Despite progress in creating machines of great computational sophistication, current research into artificial intelligence has failed to fulfill its objectives.
The stimulus doesn't make this argument. It only states that current research has not created true intelligence but does not discuss the objective of AI research. While the author might agree with this goal, the author doesn’t make this claim in the stimulus.
D
The capacity to express noncognitive responses such as emotion is at least as important for true intelligence as is computational sophistication.
The stimulus doesn’t make this claim. It states that truly intelligent machines need more than computational ability, like humans need more than cognitive responses, but it doesn’t compare their importance or argue that true machine intelligence requires noncognitive responses.
E
If a machine is not capable of producing humanlike noncognitive responses, then it cannot be regarded as truly intelligent.
The stimulus does not make this claim. The stimulus states that truly intelligent machines need more than computational ability, like humans need more than cognitive responses, but the stimulus does not argue that true machine intelligence requires noncognitive responses.

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LSAT PrepTest 138 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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