The Turing test determines if a machine can converse like a human. It has three participants: two subjects and a judge. A prize is awarded to the chatbot that gets the best results. Ray Kurzweil and Mitch Kapor bet on whether an AI will pass the test by 2029.
The Turing test is a hypothetical test to determine whether or not a machine intelligence can converse like a human. The test is named after World War II computer genius Alan Turing, who invented it. This test is an anthropocentric test, i.e. it does not test intelligence in general, but simply the ability to converse like a human being. The first implication, now refuted, was that the test measured objective intelligence. However, there could potentially be an AI that simply doesn’t speak human languages or doesn’t understand human conversation.
The Turing test has three participants: two subjects and a judge. One of the subjects is a person and the other is a computer. Both subjects are hidden from the judge’s view. They communicate with the judge via text-only channels. The judge’s role is to determine which text channel corresponds to human and which corresponds to computer. If the judge is unable to determine this, the computer passes the test.
Every year, a prize is awarded to the chatbot that gets the best results in the Turing test. Some chatbots, such as ELIZA and ALICE, have become moderately famous, but none yet come close to successfully mimicking a human. The first formal instance of the test is in the form of the Loebner Prize, which will award 100,000 United States Dollars (USD) to anyone who submits the winning AI. The annual contest is usually held in New York City.
Renowned inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil and software pioneer Mitch Kapor have bet $10,000 against each other on whether an artificial intelligence will pass the Turing test by 2029. Kurzweil believes one will, while Kapor believes that no one will. An AI that passes the Turing test would likely need to be generally intelligent—that is, able to quickly learn and follow subtle verbal cues in conversation in the same way a human would. Such an AI would also theoretically be able to replace humans in a number of jobs where conversations are required. An AI passing the Turing test would be a huge event and would convince many that the machine is truly intelligent.
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