A robot called ‘Cubinator’ solving a Rubik’s cube during the 2007 Rubik’s Cube World Championship (Image: Bela Szandelszky/Rex Features)

IN December, philosopher and artificial intelligence expert Aaron Sloman announced his intention to create nothing less than a robot mathematician. He reckons he has identified a key component of how humans develop mathematical talent. If he’s right, it should be possible to program a machine to be as good as us at mathematics, and possibly better.

This is no mad quest, insists Sloman, of the University of Birmingham in the UK. “Human brains don’t work by magic, so whatever it is they do should be doable in suitably designed machines,” he says.

Human brains don’t work by magic, so whatever it is they do should be doable by machine

Sloman’s creature is not meant to be a mathematical genius capable of advancing the frontiers of mathematical knowledge: his primary aim, outlined in the journal Artifical Intelligence (vol 172, p2015), is to use such a machine to improve our understanding of where our mathematical ability comes from. Nevertheless, it is possible that such a robot could take us beyond what mathematicians have achieved so far. Forget robot vacuum cleaners and android waitresses; we’re talking about a machine that could spawn a race of cyber-nerds capable of creating entirely new forms of mathematics.

The field of artificial intelligence has promised much before, of course. Early researchers thought it might open a fast-track to understanding consciousness, and there were claims that artificially intelligent computers and robots would change the world. The truth has been more prosaic. AI has done some clever things, such as …