Computer becomes first to pass Turing Test in artificial intelligence milestone
Computer becomes first to pass Turing Test in artificial
intelligence milestone, but academics warn of dangerous future
Eugene Goostman, a computer programme pretending to be a
young Ukrainian boy, successfully duped enough humans to pass the iconic test
ANDREW GRIFFIN
Sunday 08 June 2014
A programme that convinced humans that it was a
13-year-old boy has become the first computer ever to pass the Turing Test. The
test — which requires that computers are indistinguishable from humans — is
considered a landmark in the development of artificial intelligence, but
academics have warned that the technology could be used for cybercrime.
Computing pioneer Alan Turing said that a computer could
be understood to be thinking if it passed the test, which requires that a
computer dupes 30 per cent of human interrogators in five-minute text
conversations.
Eugene Goostman, a computer programme made by a team
based in Russia , succeeded
in a test conducted at the Royal Society in London . It convinced 33 per cent of the
judges that it was human, said academics at the University of Reading
It is thought to be the first computer to pass the iconic
test. Though other programmes have claimed successes, those included set topics
or questions in advance.
A version of the computer programme, which was created in
2001, is hosted online for anyone talk to. (“I feel about beating the turing
test in quite convenient way. Nothing original,” said Goostman, when asked how
he felt after his success.)
The computer programme claims to be a 13-year-old boy
from Odessa in Ukraine .
"Our main idea was that he can claim that he knows
anything, but his age also makes it perfectly reasonable that he doesn' t know everything," said Vladimir Veselov, one
of the creators of the programme. "We spent a lot of time developing a
character with a believable personality."
The programme' s
success is likely to prompt some concerns about the future of computing, said
Kevin Warwick, a visiting professor at the University
of Reading and deputy vice-chancellor
for research at Coventry
University
"In the field of Artificial Intelligence there is no
more iconic and controversial milestone than the Turing Test, when a computer
convinces a sufficient number of interrogators into believing that it is not a
machine but rather is a human," he said. "Having a computer that can
trick a human into thinking that someone, or even something, is a person we
trust is a wake-up call to cybercrime.
"The Turing Test is a vital tool for combatting that
threat. It is important to understand more fully how online, real-time
communication of this type can influence an individual human in such a way that
they are fooled into believing something is true... when in fact it is
not."
The test, organised at the Royal Society on Saturday,
featured five programmes in total. Judges included Robert Llewellyn, who played
robot Kryten in Red Dwarf, and Lord Sharkey, who led the successful campaign
for Alan Turing' s posthumous pardon
last year.
Alan Turing created the test in a 1950 paper, ' Computing Machinery and Intelligence' . In it, he said that because ' thinking'
was difficult to define, what matters is whether a computer could imitate a
real human being. It has since become a key part of the philosophy of
artificial intelligence.
The success came on the 60th anniversary of Turing' s death, on Saturday.
Comments
Post a Comment