Computers now better than humans at recognising and sorting images

Baidu's Minwa supercomputer can sort a million images into a thousand predefined categories with an error rate less than the typical person

First, the robots beat us at assembling cars. Then, they beat us at playing chess. Now, they've also got better than us at sorting images into predefined categories.

It might not sound like much, but the success of the Minwa supercomputer, which can sort a million images into a thousand predefined categories with an error rate less than the typical human, makes it the latest secret weapon of the company known as "China's Google", Baidu.