Scientists in Costa Rica decided to introduce wild capuchins to modern technology — and got, perhaps, the most honest user test in the history of artificial intelligence.
A special system was set up for the monkeys CapuchinAI. A camera identifies a specific capuchin, a touchscreen offers a simple task, and for a correct action, a dispenser gives a piece of dried banana.
Sounds high-tech. But the monkeys' first encounter with AI followed the classic pattern:
approach → look → hit → bite → check if it's food.
A large male named Trompudo stood out especially. Instead of carefully studying the interface, he climbed onto the device and started pounding it. At some point, he accidentally touched the touchscreen — and the dispenser gave a banana.
That's when the scientific experiment suddenly sped up.
Trompudo ate the reward, touched the screen again — got another one. And quite quickly understood the main rule of modern civilization:
you touch the screen — you get what you want.
Within two weeks, 16 capuchins approached the unusual device. Ten of them learned to get a reward, and eight already confidently linked the screen with food dispensing.
What interests scientists is not how well monkeys can order bananas. The system allows studying memory, learning, and decision-making in wild primates without constant human presence.
But from the outside, the experiment looks like a perfect guide to mastering new technologies:
if the interface is unclear — first hit it. If a banana comes out — you're doing everything right. 😂
And somewhere right now, user interface designers are nervously rereading the study results.
