Turing Test Milestone

In 1950, legendary British computer scientist (and cryptologist!) Alan Turing devised a test. To pass, a computer program would have to hold a five minute text/keyboard conversation with humans and be so convincing that more than 30% of the interrogators would regard it as human.

A program simulating a 13 year old named “Eugene Goostman” just became the first computer program to pass the Turing test by convincing 33% of its human interrogators.

That is truly a milestone and a very significant achievement. Everybody who has ever thought about this will appreciate that conducting a broad conversation for a number of minutes is actually not that easy.

Did you know… in geek circles the Turing test is also commonly used in jokes, with someone wondering whether a particular fellow human (politician?) would actually pass…

Of course, we have to recognise that the sole purpose of Eugene Goostman was to pass the Turing test. Speaking as a programmer, building a system for a highly specific task with clearly defined rules and boundaries is, in the grand scheme of things, peanuts – compared to a human having to deal with all the variables in the real world. Still, it’s real progress. Well done to all the awesome programmers and other scientists involved in this project!