New Contestants On the Turing Test 630
vitamine73 writes "At 9 a.m. next Sunday, six computer programs — 'artificial conversational entities' — will answer questions posed by human volunteers at the University of Reading in a bid to become the first recognized 'thinking' machine. If any program succeeds, it is likely to be hailed as the most significant breakthrough in artificial intelligence since the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. It could also raise profound questions about whether a computer has the potential to be 'conscious' — and if humans should have the 'right' to switch it off."
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Artificial Intelligence? (Score:4, Informative)
No, that's the purpose of cognitive science. Artificial intelligence is the name that we give to the study of technology that is between commonplace and (to borrow Arthur C. Clarke's terminology) magic.
Re:Well... (Score:2, Informative)
Here's a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Room [wikipedia.org]
Re:Artificial Intelligence? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Questions? (Score:2, Informative)
We probably will not produce it by accident, either, unless and until we are reproducing the human mind.
If you assume substrate independence, you end up here [simulation-argument.com].
Not replicants (Score:3, Informative)
The term you're looking for is Artificial Intelligence.
Re:Contentious Chess Match and then some. (Score:2, Informative)
... and to this day have refused to release the logs from the machine which would prove how it made such an improbable (for a computer at least) move.
Log from game 6 [ibm.com]
From here: http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/watch/html/c.shtml [ibm.com]
Holy crap... (Score:5, Informative)
Can you tell human from machine?
One of these conversations is between Professor Kevin Warwick (KW) and a human; the other between Warwick and a computer. Can you tell which is which?
Conversation one:
Subject: Hello. My name is Nick and I am a human.
KW: Are you happy being a human?
Subject: Yes, I am. Are you? Good. Then we are both happy.
KW: Yes, I am. Are you happy with your life at present?
Subject: Parts of it. I hate my job, but most people do, right?
KW: I'm OK with mine. What is your job?
Subject: I work as an 'online internet advertising monitor', which is fancy language for electronic filing. What do you do?
KW: I interrogate humans and machines.
Subject: Which ones do you prefer, humans or machines?
KW: Which do you prefer?
Subject: Hmm. Depends on for what purpose you mean.
KW: To go to a restaurant, for example?
Subject: Then I would much prefer going with a human.
Conversation two:
Subject: Hello, my name is Mike and I am a man.
KW: Are you happy being a human?
Subject: Judge, I'm a guy.
KW: Does that worry you?
Subject: Don't worry, we'll work everything through.
KW: Do you have worries then?
Subject: Let's move on from that basis.
KW: Why?
Subject: Why? I like this subject.
KW: What is the subject, do you think?
Subject: What is the subject I wonder if I think? I know that it's good to thonk about. Think deeplt about mysterious subjects.
KW: What mysterious subjects?
Subject: Think deeply about mysterious dubjects.
KW: What's a dubject?
Answers:
Conversation one is with a human; conversation two is with the program Ultra Hal.
No shit, Sherlock? The second conversation stops making sense in the first answer.
Re:If it's really thinking.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Reach for the switch... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Reach for the switch... (Score:3, Informative)