In a world in which the kinds of things that are easy to teach and test have also become easy to digitise and automate, we need to think harder how education and training can complement, rather than substitute, the artificial intelligence (AI) we have created in our computers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are major breakthrough technologies that are transforming the economy and society. To understand and anticipate this transformation, policy makers must first understand what these technologies can and cannot do. The OECD launched the Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Skills project to develop a programme that could assess the capabilities of AI and robotics and their impact on education and work. This report represents the first step in developing the methodological approach of the project. It reviews existing taxonomies and tests in psychology and computer science, and discusses their strengths, weaknesses and applicability for assessing machine capabilities.

Phillip L. Ackerman (Chapter 8) is Professor of Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has conducted basic and applied research in cognitive psychology, individual differences, psychological testing, and human abilities. He has written extensively on the nature of adolescent and adult learning, skill acquisition, selection, training, abilities, personality, and motivation. He has co-edited three books on individual differences and is the editor of a book on cognitive fatigue. Dr. Ackerman’s main contributions involve integration across multiple fields of psychological inquiry, specifically related to individual differences. Noteworthy contributions include integration of information processing and ability approaches to individual differences in skill learning; of ability and motivational determinants of learning and performance; of ability, personality, and interest traits; and explication of an integrated approach to adolescent and adult intellectual development. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association; Human Factors & Ergonomics Society, American Educational Research Association, Psychonomic Society, and he is a Charter Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.