How do babies learn words? An AI experiment may hold clues

An artificial intelligence model learned words from audio and video of a baby

A baby sits on a white couch reading a book next to a teddy bear.

Babies are prodigious language learners. After being fed the sights and words that a baby encountered, an artificial intelligence model picked up its first words.

Vera Livchak/Moment/Getty Images

The AI program was way less cute than a real baby. But like a baby, it learned its first words by seeing objects and hearing words.