Jun 10 2014 : Mirror (Pune)
Artificial intelligence passes the Turing Test
MM
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A historic milestone in artificial intelligence set by Alan Turing the father of modern computer science has been achieved for the first time more than 60 years after it was created
The 65 year-old iconic Turing Test was passed for the very first time by supercomputer Eugene Goostman during Turing Test 2014 held at the renowned Royal Society in London at an event organised by the University of Reading.Eugene, a computer programme that simulates a 13-year-old boy, was developed in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The development team includes Eugene’s creator Vladimir Veselov, who was born in Russia and now lives in the United States, and Ukrainian born Eugene Demchenko who now lives in Russia.
The Turing Test is based on 20th century mathematician and code-breaker Turing’s 1950 famous question and answer game, ‘Can Machines Think?’. The experiment investigates whether people can detect if they are talking to machines or humans. The event is particularly poignant as it took place on the 60th anniversary of Turing’s death, nearly six months after he was given a posthumous royal pardon.
If a computer is mistaken for a human more than 30 per cent of the time during a series of five minute keyboard conversations it passes the test. No computer has ever achieved this, until now. Eugene managed to convince 33 per cent of the human judges that it was human.
This historic event was organised by the University’s School of Systems Engineering in partnership with RoboLaw, an EU-funded organisation examining the regulation of emerging robotic technologies.
“Some will claim that the Test has already been passed. The words Turing Test have been applied to similar competitions around the world. However this event involved the most simultaneous comparison tests than ever before, was independently verified and, crucially, the conversations were unrestricted. A true Turing Test does not set the questions or topics prior to the conversations. We are therefore proud to declare that Alan Turing’s Test was passed for the first time,” said Professor Kevin Warwick, a Visiting Professor at the University of Reading.
“Of course the Test has implications for society today. Having a computer that can trick a human into thinking that someone, or even
something, is a person we trust is a wake-up call to cybercrime. The Turing Test is a vital tool for combating that threat. It is important to understand more fully how online, real-time communication of this type can influence an individual human in such a way that they are fooled into believing something is true... when in fact it is not.” Eugene was one of five supercomputers battling it for the Turing Test 2014 Prize.“I want to congratulate everyone who worked on Eugene Goostman. Our whole team is very excited with this result. It’s a remarkable achievement for us and we hope it boosts interest in artificial intelligence and chatbots,” said Vladimir Veselov, on winning the competition and achieving this historic milestone.
“Eugene was ‘born’ in 2001. Our main idea was that he can claim that he knows anything, but his age also makes it perfectly reasonable that
he doesn’t know everything. We spent a lot of time developing a character with a believable personality. This year we improved the ‘dialog controller’ which makes the conversation far more human-like when compared to programs that just answer questions. Going forward we plan to make Eugene smarter and continue working on improving what we refer to as ‘conversation logic’.” Turing, who played a major role in breaking the “Enigma” code used by Nazi Germany, is often hailed as a genius who laid the groundwork for modern computing. But he ended his life in sadness, committing suicide in 1954 at the age of 41, two years after being convicted of the then crime of homosexuality.He was awarded a posthumous pardon by Queen Elizabeth II in December 2013 following along campaign by supporters.
The Turing Test is based on 20th century mathematician and code-breaker Turing’s 1950 famous question and answer game, ‘Can Machines Think?’. The experiment investigates whether people can detect if they are talking to machines or humans. The event is particularly poignant as it took place on the 60th anniversary of Turing’s death, nearly six months after he was given a posthumous royal pardon.
If a computer is mistaken for a human more than 30 per cent of the time during a series of five minute keyboard conversations it passes the test. No computer has ever achieved this, until now. Eugene managed to convince 33 per cent of the human judges that it was human.
This historic event was organised by the University’s School of Systems Engineering in partnership with RoboLaw, an EU-funded organisation examining the regulation of emerging robotic technologies.
“Some will claim that the Test has already been passed. The words Turing Test have been applied to similar competitions around the world. However this event involved the most simultaneous comparison tests than ever before, was independently verified and, crucially, the conversations were unrestricted. A true Turing Test does not set the questions or topics prior to the conversations. We are therefore proud to declare that Alan Turing’s Test was passed for the first time,” said Professor Kevin Warwick, a Visiting Professor at the University of Reading.
“Of course the Test has implications for society today. Having a computer that can trick a human into thinking that someone, or even
something, is a person we trust is a wake-up call to cybercrime. The Turing Test is a vital tool for combating that threat. It is important to understand more fully how online, real-time communication of this type can influence an individual human in such a way that they are fooled into believing something is true... when in fact it is not.” Eugene was one of five supercomputers battling it for the Turing Test 2014 Prize.“I want to congratulate everyone who worked on Eugene Goostman. Our whole team is very excited with this result. It’s a remarkable achievement for us and we hope it boosts interest in artificial intelligence and chatbots,” said Vladimir Veselov, on winning the competition and achieving this historic milestone.
“Eugene was ‘born’ in 2001. Our main idea was that he can claim that he knows anything, but his age also makes it perfectly reasonable that
he doesn’t know everything. We spent a lot of time developing a character with a believable personality. This year we improved the ‘dialog controller’ which makes the conversation far more human-like when compared to programs that just answer questions. Going forward we plan to make Eugene smarter and continue working on improving what we refer to as ‘conversation logic’.” Turing, who played a major role in breaking the “Enigma” code used by Nazi Germany, is often hailed as a genius who laid the groundwork for modern computing. But he ended his life in sadness, committing suicide in 1954 at the age of 41, two years after being convicted of the then crime of homosexuality.He was awarded a posthumous pardon by Queen Elizabeth II in December 2013 following along campaign by supporters.
