The Turing Test

One of the hottest topics that modern science has been focusing on for a long time is the field of artificial intelligence, the study of intelligence in machines or, according to Minsky, “the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men”.(qtd in Copeland 1). Artificial Intelligence has a lot of applications and is used in many areas. “We often don’t notice it but AI is all around us. It is present in computer games, in the cruise control in our cars and the servers that route our email.” (BBC 1). Different goals have been set for the science of Artificial Intelligence, but according to Whitby the most mentioned idea about the goal of AI is provided by the Turing Test. This test is also called the imitation game, since it is basically a game in which a computer imitates a conversating human. In an analysis of the Turing Test I will focus on its features, its historical background and the evaluation of its validity and importance.

First of all, the Test itself doesn’t really have any complex features.

As described by Haugeland, the procedure of the game is simple. Suppose that we have a person, a machine, and an interrogator. The interrogator is in a room separated from the other person and the machine. The participants in this game use teletypewriter to communicate with one another -- to avoid clues that might be offered by tone of voice, etc.The object of the game is for the interrogator to determine which of the other two is the person, and which is the machine. The interrogator knows the other person and the machine by the labels ‘X’ and ‘Y’ -- but, at least at the beginning of the game, does not know which of the other person and the machine is ‘X’ -- and at the end of the game says either ‘X is the person and Y is the machine’ or ‘X is the machine and Y is the person’.(29-30) The object of the machine is to try to cause the interrogator to mistakenly conclude that the machine is the other person; the object of the other person is to try to help the interrogator to correctly identify the machine.

If a machine passes the test, then it is clear that for many ordinary people it would be a sufficient reason to say that that is a thinking machine. And, in fact, since it is able to conversate with a human and to actually fool him and convince him that the machine is human, this would seem t...

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...ing Test and scientists of AI have different opinions about it. However there are some facts of which we can be sure of. The Turing Test was invented by a great scientist, it has had a long and rich history of 55 years and has played an important role in the science of Artificial Intelligence.

Bibliography

Artificial Intelligence. BBC. Mar. 3, 2005

Copeland, Jack. Artificial Intelligence: A philosophical introduction.

Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.

Floridi, Luciano. Philosophy and Computing: An introduction. London: Routledge, 1999.

Haugeland, John, ed. Mind Design II: Philosophy, Psychology, Artificial Intelligence

USA: MIT Press, 2000.

Hodges, Andrew. Alan Turing and the Turing Test Mar. 15 2005

< http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/scrapbook/test.html>

Millar P. H. “On the point of the Imitation Game.” Mind, New Series, Vol. 82,

No 328 (Oct. 1973): 595 par1. Mar. 20, 2005

Oppy, Graham, Dowe, David, The Turing Test, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2003 Edition), Mar. 10, 2005 .

Whitby, Blay. Artificial Intelligence: a beginner’s guide. Oxford: Oneworld, 2004.