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Idiot Savant

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Idiot Savant

A system or person who is highly skilled in a narrow task area but who lacks context and is otherwise impaired in more general areas of intelligent functioning. The term is taken from psychiatry, where it refers to a person who exhibits brilliance in one very limited domain but is underdeveloped in common sense, knowledge, and competence. For example, some human idiot savants are capable of multiplying very large numbers in their heads, or memorizing a phone book. Deep Blue is an example of an idiot savant system.


Articles on KurzweilAI.net that refer to Idiot Savant

The Age of Spiritual Machines: Glossary By Ray Kurzweil
The Age of Intelligent Machines, Chapter 10: Visions By Ray Kurzweil
Why I Think I Will Win By Mitch Kapor
The Age of Intelligent Machines, Chapter One: The Roots of Artificial Intelligence By Ray Kurzweil
Chapter 9: Bit Beliefs By Neil Gershenfeld

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IdiotSavant.com