Turing tests

[pmb]

When people aren't trying to screen out people vs. non-people, then we have many many instances of computers successfully passing themselves off as people and having long conversations with unwitting strangers who never caught on. If I told you that a particular AIM account was actually a perl script designed to pass the Turing test, and, when you initiated a chat with that account it said "No, man. That's just one of my friends playing a trick on me - I'm totally real, and that's totally a hoax", how could it convince you of its humanity without resorting to out-of-band methods "call me on the phone" or "check out my webpage"?

If you can't think of a method, then I submit that computers have already passed the Turing test.

Comments

[amoken.livejournal.com]

I cannot think of a standardizable test, nor could I give you a time limit on how long a test could take. I think it's indeterminate, and a moving target anyway. But for starters, I'd go through the random sorts of stuff that computers tend to have difficulty with (common sense—when Alice goes to the store does her head go with her; amateur chatter in several domains; mindless chitchat; tell me about yourself, your parents, your home, your job, etc; and so on), ask more in-depth questions in response, and possibly go through some of the things computers tend to excel at.

[misuba.livejournal.com]

It's not so much that computers have passed the Turing test, as that we've failed it. Most of the time we don't communicate with each other in a way that really expresses our humanity.

Passing a different kind of scrutiny than "prove it"

[inkandessence.livejournal.com]

In the original form of Turing's imitation game, the goal wasn't to come up with clever answers or attitude towards "Prove you are human! Now!" - it was to secretly pass as human while being questioned by an unwitting examiner about some other area of human life, e.g. the experience of being a woman.

That was why TheGuessingGame (http://www.theguessinggame.net/) made the news recently (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Simon's_Rock_College_tests_Alan_Turing_theories_with_'Imitation_Game'_experiment)

The confusion is caused by the Loebner Prize (http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html), which takes a more direct "prove it!" attitude. But I think the important thing to remember is what the Turing Test was supposed to measure - intelligence. Turing wasn't interested in whether a computer could convincingly blow you off - a tape recorder wired to a doorbell can convincingly blow you off. He was interested in whether a computer could simulate a short, free-ranging conversation in a way that created the impression of intelligence.

[olstad.livejournal.com]

I tend to use a lot of colloquialisms and punny conversation. I've never used AIM and I haven't used ytalk in a long time, but I think that's true in my written conversation as well... are AIs up to speed on such things these days?

[bettsbaby.livejournal.com]

Being unfamiliar with this...have computers already started co-opting the "you know when you" kind of language? (i.e. You know when you go to the supermarket and there's a guy in the 10 items or less checkout line with 20 items? Don't you hate that?) The language that a lot of people use to try to make a connection between themselves and the person they are speaking with, instead of just speaking from their own experience. (i.e. When I go to the supermarket I hate it when there's someone in the 10 items or less checkout line with 20 items)

[akjdg.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty clueless on the topic also, but I would initially think that focusing on arcane knowledge or logical leaps that are heavily dependent on specific knowledge would be effective.

But if the algorithm had the opportunity to crawl the web and learn 'everything', and meaningfully digest it, then that might not be a useful approach. The web is far more knowledgeable (and disknowledgeable) than I.

So. Beats me.

In other news, You'll be delighted to know that I'm in Iowa and mailed 26 cows today. My herd was up to nearly 200, but we hit Des Moines and Amy's quick eyes saw several fast food 'restaurants'.

Way too appropriate!

[dragonmudd.livejournal.com]

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/001936.html

Especially read the subject line.