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According to a new study which the journal Science recently published, it seems that bees, and especially honeybees, are intelligent enough to understand the concept of zero. This makes them part of a small and elite group of animals that are able to grasp the mathematical concept of nothingness. The idea behind this discovery is to provide new possibilities for Artificial Intelligence to get developed even further. Even tiny brains can understand abstract and complex notions so, this means that one day, AI might be able to do it too.
A team of Australian and French scientists wanted to test whether or not bees can rank numerical quantities. Also, if they can understand that zero, or nothing, belongs and the lower end of a number sequence. According to Associate Professor Adrian Dyer, it seems that the number zero is the base of all modern technological advancements and mathematics. Having honeybees recognize and understand this concept is very unusual because it’s very complex. It even takes children years to comprehend. For years, experts thought that only humans had the capacity to understand what zero means. However, in time, they discovered that birds and monkeys can do it too. Now, it seems that honeybees are also part of that category.
Bees are intelligent enough to understand the notion of nothingness
Bees are famous for being the perfect pollinators, but they are also perfect for investigating insect cognition. Previous research has shown that honeybees can learn skills form other bees. Moreover, they are able to understand other complex notions like difference and sameness. But the fact that bees only have less than 1 million neurons has made experts believe that it was too hard for them to grasp other concepts. In comparison to humans, who have 86,00 million neurons, bees do not stand too well.
However, it seems that they were wrong. Bees are intelligent enough to grasp even the most complex notions. This could be very valuable when it comes to the evolution of Artificial Intelligence.
Image source: pixabay
