Loebner Talks AI

Mighty Squirrel writes "This is a fascinating interivew with Hugh Loebner, the academic who has arguably done more to promote the development of artifical intelligence than anyone else. He founded the Loebner prize in 1990 to promote the development of artificial intelligence by asking developers to create a machine which passes the Turing Test — meaning it responds in a way indistinguishable from a human. The latest running of the contest is this weekend and this article shows what an interesting and colourful character Loebner is."

Re:This is news for nerds?

[Anonymous Coward]

if you haven't read TFA

Way ahead of you!

Re:Sorry, Loebner Has Done Nothing for AI

[jbsooter]

I always imagine the first, and last, computer that will pass the Turing Test will be the one explaining to us that it has taken over the world because we aren't intelligent enough to run it ourselves. :P It will end the conversation with "You really didn't see this coming? What a bunch of idiots."

Re:Sorry, Loebner Has Done Nothing for AI

[Your.Master]

But you did see it coming. And it's on the Internet, which such a machine would have much easier access to and could search much more instantaneously than we. Which means its failure to notice this prediction is a sign of laziness and/or intellectual defect.

Which gives the human race hope.

Re:Sorry, Loebner Has Done Nothing for AI

[thrillseeker]

if you can fool people into believing you're intelligent, then you are intelligent?

as my ethics teacher said, "Sincerity is the most important thing ... once you can fake that, you've got it made."

Re:This is news for nerds?

[Mr Thinly Sliced]

I'm just here for the comments!

I'm not even here!

Re:Let's forget the turing test

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this testing whether I'm intelligent or a lesbian?

Re: "Just Ask"

[TaoPhoenix]

Really now, I wish I had a team partner, because these guys need to take a page from the chess world and buff up their Anti-Trick-Question tactics. Those questions always revolve around rapid context switching that would frankly irritate if not confuse a person as well, such as one speaking a second language. (There's a test for you! Which is the computer and which is the guy speaking his ruined French he learned 20 years ago?)

(Typical Tester fake question) "Is the Queen larger than a breadbox?"
Program: "What kind of question is that?"
Tester: "Answer the question"
Program: "Since you failed to define "Queen" on purpose, you created a question that is simultaneously true and false, and therefore a null question. I can only assume this is some cheap ass attempt to authenticate before you waste your remaining 7 minutes chatting with the human should you be so lucky, so I quit here and now. Ask your judge what to do if your software oppponent is programmed to sulk."

Re:Great Book on AI

[QuantumG]

He doesn't actually say anything in that book.

Re:Sorry, Loebner Has Done Nothing for AI

[cerberusss]

Most AI, even if highly intelligent, will never behave anything like a human, simply because its something vastly different and build for very different tasks.

Yep. Like hunting down and destroying said human.

Re:Let's forget the turing test

[deodiaus2]

Have it decipher Republican campaign slogans!! I am sure every computer will crash trying to extract information from nonsense.