The Turing Test is supposed to show that an AI has an intelligence similar to that of a human being. However, it must be kept in mind that the test was developed as early as 1950.
The Turing Test: How it works
The Turing Test is a concept from artificial intelligence (AI) and was proposed by the British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing in 1950. The test is used as a benchmark to determine whether an AI is able to mimic human thought and behaviour sufficiently to be indistinguishable from a human. Here’s how it works:
- A human (examiner) communicates via a computer terminal with two participants, one of whom is a human and the other an AI.
- The examiner can ask any questions to the two participants. However, he does not know their identities.
- If, after a certain period of time, the examiner is unable to determine with any greater accuracy than pure chance which of the two participants is the AI, the AI is deemed to have passed the Turing test and is considered “intelligent”.
Turing test: controversial and out of date
The Turing test is not without controversy, especially nowadays. Some critics argue that it does not necessarily measure intelligence or consciousness, but only the ability to imitate. Moreover, technological advances in artificial intelligence have shown that an AI can pass the Turing test without actually possessing human-like thinking or consciousness.
- So the chatbot Eugene Goostman reportedly already passed the test in 2014. In 2017, an artificial intelligence also passed the test by writing reviews. To date, there are many more AIs that have passed the Turing test in various fields.
- However, one should keep in mind that the test was invented in the middle of the last century and the state of knowledge was different then. For example, natural intelligence used to be very underestimated and it was assumed that artificial intelligence would be indistinguishable from humans by the year 2000.
- In the meantime, there are new concepts for Turing tests. Among them is the idea of Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, who wants to recognise intelligence based on the AI’s economy. This is how it is supposed to turn $100,000 into a million dollars.
