The Turing Test

The Turing test is a setup where you have a person sitting at a computer chatting via something like an instant messenger program (like MSN Messenger) with someone at the other end that could either be another person or a computer. The job of the person is to figure out whether what they're chatting with is a person or a computer. If it is a computer and they can tell, then the computer has failed the Turing test. Designing AI to pass the Turing Test is one of the holy grails of computer science.

My guess is that the first AI to pass this test will be more akin to a magician pulling off an amazing feat, and less about creating a machine that truly does what the Turing test is supposed to test for: AI with roughly the same intelligence as a human mind. It would be like a magician who causes someone to disappear, convincing an audience full of guests that he's done the impossible. In reality, what he has done is use smoke and mirrors in a clever way -- he certainly didn't make a person vanish into thin air. And so passing the Turing test becomes a game of deceit; creating a facade that fools the observer.

This doesn't make the Turing Test an unworthy pursuit, and no doubt the machine will have to be mighty clever, but I think we need to realize that the first AI to pass it may not be as advanced as we would suppose.

Link: BBC: George, an online robot breaking new ground

Update: July 8, 2008: To be fair, I think it depends on how you define the Turing test. If the test is passed the first time any human being thinks they're chatting with a person when in reality they're chatting with an AI, then I think my above observation is a good one. (And perhaps there have already been people who have been fooled) But if you define passing the test to involve fooling people who are trained at interrogating AIs with a > 90% success ratio, then I think it's going to take a lot more than smoke and mirrors.