# The Turing Test has been passed **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 8, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362 "2014-06-08T23:07:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/1 "2014-06-08T23:07:44Z")
On the 60th anniversary of the death of Alan Turing, the University of Reading held ‘Turing Test 2014’ and this year the test was finally passed. > **[Computer program fools humans, allegedly passes Turing test](https://www.cnet.com/science/computer-program-fools-humans-allegedly-passes-turing-test/)** > > A team in Russia claims its chatbot managed to dupe more than 30 percent of human interrogators into believing it's human. Are they to be believed? I guess we’ll see what this means for the future of computers. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/2 "2014-06-08T23:30:23Z")
> [@linked article](#): > > There’s a certain convenience in pretending you’re a 13-year-old boy, of course. You can fool people more easily because, unlike IBM’s Watson, you don’t have to pretend you know everything. Rather you have to have a very well designed “dialog controller.” Which must’ve been achieved by responding to every other question with, “That’s so gay!” ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/3 "2014-06-09T00:25:46Z")
Fooling 30% of the observers doesn’t seem like a very high threshold. That being said, it is a milestone. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/4 "2014-06-09T00:27:43Z")
To fool “more than 30 percent of human interrogators” into thinking they are talking to a 13 year old Ukrainian boy is certainly not to pass Turing’s version of the Turing test, or any of the better defined versions (Turing’s description of his “test” is, in fact, almost laughably vague) that have have been proposed since as meaningful tests of artificial intelligence. If you get to define “the test” your own way, and set the conditions appropriately, it is easy to write a program to pass it. ELIZA was fooling people into thinking they were communicating with a human back in the 1960s. I see no evidence in the article that the same sort of thing is not going on here. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/5 "2014-06-09T03:11:10Z")
This is kinda fun. A computer was tested at the Royal Society in London to see if it could convince at least 30% of judges it was a 13 year old boy. It convinced 33%. I don’t think this means the computer is really “thinking” but I guess that depends how you define it. > **[Computer simulating 13-year-old boy becomes first to pass Turing test](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/08/super-computer-simulates-13-year-old-boy-passes-turing-test)** > > 'Eugene Goostman' fools 33% of interrogators into thinking it is human, in what is seen as a milestone in artificial intelligence Some of the comments are funny. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/6 "2014-06-09T03:38:35Z")
> **[The Turing Test has been passed](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=725525)** > > On the 60th anniversary of the death of Alan Turing, the University of Reading held ‘Turing Test 2014’ and this year the test was finally passed. I guess we’ll see what this means for the future of computers. Thread already started. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/7 "2014-06-09T07:19:43Z")
Does this say more about the abilities of the computer, or the limitations of 13 year old boys? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/8 "2014-06-09T10:53:29Z")
Yeah–they told the judges that it was either a computer, or a Russian kid who spoke English as a second language, and gave each judge five minutes to chat with the computer, and when one judge thought it really was a Russian kid with bad English, they declared victory. I’m not as impressed as the headline made me think I’d be. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/9 "2014-06-09T11:02:34Z")
I wonder if anyone has ever run a fakeout Turing Test. Tell everyone it’s a Turing Test, but have no computers, just people. I wonder how many people would ultimately conclude whoever they were talking to was a computer. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/10 "2014-06-09T11:31:57Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > On the 60th anniversary of the death of Alan Turing, the University of Reading held ‘Turing Test 2014’ and this year the test was finally passed. How do you feel about that? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/11 "2014-06-09T14:38:26Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > How do you feel about that? :snicker: ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/12 "2014-06-09T14:58:13Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > How do you feel about that? What do you mean how do you feel about that? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/13 "2014-06-09T15:06:43Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > What do you mean how do you feel about that? You have a case of short term memory loss? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/14 "2014-06-09T15:08:49Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I wonder if anyone has ever run a fakeout Turing Test. Tell everyone it’s a Turing Test, but have no computers, just people. > > I wonder how many people would ultimately conclude whoever they were talking to was a computer. [Blade Runner’s Rachel] Did you ever take that test yourself? [Rachel] ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/15 "2014-06-09T15:09:29Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Yeah–they told the judges that it was either a computer, or a Russian kid who spoke English as a second language, and gave each judge five minutes to chat with the computer, and when one judge thought it really was a Russian kid with bad English, they declared victory. I’m not as impressed as the headline made me think I’d be. Ukrainian, not Russian, I think. Apparently that’s kind of a big deal. Arguably, what this really tells us about is the contempt that the middle-aged judges hold teenagers in. Certainly, it’s hard to believe that the transcript [here](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10886389/Computer-passes-the-Turing-Test-Im-not-convinced.html)would have fooled anybody unless they were expecting their subject to be a) bad at English and b) easily distracted: > [@](#): > > Judge: Hi, I’m Cathy. > Entity: Cathy! Nice to meet you! You’re a woman, if I’m not mistaken. > Judge: Right. What is your name? > Entity: People call me Eugene. Or “Zhenya”. It is a short name for Eugene in Russia and Ukraine. > Judge: NIce name. Are you from either area? > Entity: Agree 🙂 Oh, what a fruitful conversation;-) > Judge: Do you really think so? > Entity: No, your guess was wrong. I don’t think so. By the way, I still don’t know your specialty - or, possibly, I’ve missed it? > Judge: What speciality? What’s yours? > Entity: Huh? And I forgot to ask you where you are from… > Judge: The universe and you? > Entity: Is it your hobby to ask little poor Jewish boys such tricky questions they don’t have an answer for? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/16 "2014-06-09T15:11:25Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > You have a case of short term memory loss? What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/17 "2014-06-09T15:26:59Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > What do you think? About what specifically? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/18 "2014-06-09T15:28:48Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > About what specifically? That weather god exist or not. This time I literally asked Cleverbot and that was the response. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/19 "2014-06-09T15:30:47Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I wonder if anyone has ever run a fakeout Turing Test. Tell everyone it’s a Turing Test, but have no computers, just people. > > I wonder how many people would ultimately conclude whoever they were talking to was a computer. I seem to recall a half-joking “Are you a nerd?” test where you got one “nerd” point for each “yes” answer, and two of the questions were like this: Have you ever taken a Turing Test? Did you fail? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362/20 "2014-06-09T17:15:09Z")
Yesterday I had an online chat with Snapfish Customer Service and I think it was a computer that failed the Turing test. > [@Snapfish Rep](#): > > I am extremely sorry you are trying to place an order to store order that’s why no coupon codes and no offers will apply on store order you have to contact at your store only. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-turing-test-has-been-passed/690362.md?page=2)