The Real Turing Test

The original Turing Test is a little different than I normally hear it described. It starts with a man, a woman, and an interrogator. They communicate using text. The interrogator tries to determine which one is a woman. The man impersonates a woman.

The trick is that the man is then replaced by a computer. Now the interrogator tries to determines which of the two (computer or woman) is the computer. It is a test of how well the computer can simulate a human.

There is an annual contest to see whether new computer programs can pass the Turing Test. The best attempt wins $2,000. And if any program can actually pass the test, they win $100,000.

Next time I will go into other artificial intelligence topics such as a computer playing chess.