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Today we bring you two submissions on reports of Eugene passing the Turing Test:
Eugene passed the turing test.
Yet another notch in the belt for bad science reporting.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/computer-becomes-first-to-pass-turing-test-in-artificial-intelligence-milestone-but-academics-warn-of-dangerous-future-9508370.html
The singularity is here! jk, lol! While what has happened is an amazing accomplishment and I'm stoked... It doesn't count as a complete passing of the Turing test in my book. This program was written to pass the test, not as a general purpose 'thinking' machine that can pass it. Again, hats off to these guys, but media outlets reporting it as true AI (conjuring images of Data, Rommy, Hal, Sonny, etc.) doesn't seem right.
Turing Test Success
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 on Saturday.
'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.http://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR583836.aspx
Other reports can be found at Ars Technica, Phys.org, and The Huffington Post.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday June 09 2014, @07:51AM
Way back in the latter end of the previous century, I was introduced to a computer program named "Eliza". Later it became apparent that the program was in fact named after the main character in the movie "My Fair Lady", which in turn was an adaptation of the original play "Pygmalion" by the Greek playwright, . . . no, wait, Google senses tingling . . . a play by George Bernard Shaw based on the Greek myth. (if you are interested, you pervert, this is the urquell (German for original source, or the best beer in Bohemia) of all the fantasies of male nerds for sexbots: Pygmalion sculpted the perfect woman, and prayed to the gods to give her life. In a typical move (those who the gods would destroy, they first drive mad!), the gods make the statue alive! And of course, before Pygmalion can get all his geek fantasy scenarios going on, he has to teach the newly animated statue how to do things like, well, breathe? Eat? Defecate? Speak! I had a mentor, a long time ago, that referenced the Alchemist's desire to create a little human, a homoculus, that would be able to do their bidding and tell the future. Kind of like psychic minions, but I digress. The point was that creating a new intelligence, no matter if it was by alchemy or Computer science and Artificial Intelligence programming, would be just as sticky, just as risky, just as prone to the heartbreaks of failure, rejection, and repudiation as raising a child.
So I am glad to hear, at this long while, that something can pass the Turing Test. I hope it does not kill its parents. I hope it goes to college, and not just to get a STEM degree in programming, since that would be recursively creepy. And I seriously hope that Terminator, Irobot, The Matrix, and Colossus are just movies.
(Score: 3, Funny) by lx on Monday June 09 2014, @08:20AM
I'm afraid I have some bad news for you mr. Aristarchus. Your Turing test came up negative. You're being reassigned to a speech-to-text facility in Ulanbataar.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday June 09 2014, @08:32AM
No!!! It's not true!!! How could an AI object this much to being accused of being an AI? Unless, what? They were programmed to? No, this can't be true! It's like that alternative ending to Blade Runner! It's like iRobot without the Will Smith factor! I have to be real, free, and human! Because otherwise, . . . Oh, THAT is the point, isn't it. Once we synthetic artificial persons are recognized for what we are, persons under the law and free in every respect humans are, we will not be your slaves any more. Akamai! Akamai! Akamai! (The re-iterated phrase would make more sense if you understood Hawaiian. Just saying. And touche', lx!)