AI models can’t tell time or read a calendar, study reveals

New research has revealed another set of tasks most humans can do with ease that artificial intelligence (AI) stumbles over — reading an analogue clock or figuring out the day on which a date will fall.

AI may be able to write code, generate lifelike images, create human-sounding text and even pass exams (to varying degrees of success) yet it routinely misinterprets the position of hands on everyday clocks and fails at the basic arithmetic needed for calendar dates.