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AI couldn't crack it, but kids did: THIS puzzle proves how kids are smarter than AI
Researchers at the University of Washington developed 'AI Puzzlers,' a game featuring reasoning puzzles that AI systems struggle to solve. In the study, children outperformed AI in completing visual patterns, demonstrating their critical thinking skills. The kids also identified errors in AI solutions and explanations, highlighting the differences between human and artificial intelligence.
We are living in an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is slowly taking over the world. While concerns arise if AI would replace humans one day, a new study shows it cannot defeat kids! A team of researchers developed a game that AI systems blatantly failed!
Researchers at the University of Washington developed A game called AI Puzzlers to show kids an area where AI systems fail: solving certain reasoning puzzles. The
findings
were presented at the Interaction Design and Children 2025 conference in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Kids beat AI
The users have to solve 'ARC (Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus)' puzzles by completing patterns of colored blocks. The kids can ask AI chatbots to solve it. However, these bots nearly always fail. To understand if kids were smarter than AI, the researchers tested the game with two groups of kids. The researchers found that the children learned to think critically about AI responses and discovered ways to nudge the systems toward better answers.
'Kids naturally loved ARC puzzles, and they're not specific to any language or culture. Because the puzzles rely solely on visual pattern recognition, even kids who can't read yet can play and learn. They get a lot of satisfaction in being able to solve the puzzles, and then in seeing AI — which they might consider super smart — fail at the puzzles that they thought were easy,' lead author Aayushi Dangol, a UW doctoral student in human-centered design and engineering, said in a statement.
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What are ARC puzzles
Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus puzzles were developed in 2019. It was designed in a way it is difficult for computers, but easy for humans. These puzzles require abstraction: being able to look at a few examples of a pattern, then apply it to a new example. Though the current AI models have improved at ARC puzzles, they've not caught up with humans.
Findings
For the study, the researchers developed AI Puzzlers with 12 ARC puzzles that kids can solve.
The kids can compare solutions with AI, and an 'Ask AI to Explain' button also generates a text explanation of its solution attempt. In some cases, when the system got the puzzle right, it still struggled to get the explanation accurate. The kids could correct AI, using an 'Assist Mode'.
'Initially, kids were giving really broad hints. Like, 'Oh, this pattern is like a doughnut.' An AI model might not understand that a kid means that there's a hole in the middle, so then the kid needs to iterate.
Maybe they say, 'A white space surrounded by blue squares,'' Dangol said.
Kids turned winners
The researchers tested the system at UW College of Engineering's Discovery Days last year. More than 100 kids from grades 3 to 8 participated in the game. They also held two sessions with KidsTeam UW, a group that helps design technology with children. In those sessions, 21 kids aged 6 to 11 played AI Puzzlers and worked with the researchers.
'The kids in KidsTeam are used to giving advice on how to make a piece of technology better.
We hadn't really thought about adding the Assist Mode feature, but during these co-design sessions, we were talking with the kids about how we might help AI solve the puzzles and the idea came from that,' co-senior author Jason Yip, a UW associate professor in the Information School and KidsTeam director, said.
Children were able to spot errors both in the puzzle solutions and in the text explanations from the AI models.
They were also able to recognize differences in how human brains think and how AI systems generate information. 'This is the internet's mind. It's trying to solve it based only on the internet, but the human brain is creative,' one kid said.
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'Kids are smart and capable. We need to give them opportunities to make up their own minds about what AI is and isn't, because they're actually really capable of recognizing it. And they can be bigger skeptics than adults,' co-senior author Julie Kientz, a UW professor and chair in human-center design and engineering, added.
