What Is the Turing Test for AI?
The original test consists of two human subjects and an autonomous computer.
One person (the questioner) sits in a room with a keyboard and a monitor.
For his groundbreaking work, Turning was honored in England with his image on the face of the £50 banknote.Alphotographic/Getty Images
The other person (the responder) is in a separate room with a keyboard and a monitor.
The computer is in a different room by itself.
The human test taker types a series of predetermined questions, which the responder and the computer receive.
Can a human can tell the difference between another human and a computer program?
Who Invented the Turing Test?
Turing based his idea on a similar experiment called the Imitation Game involving two men and one woman.
The catch, of course, was replacing one of the subjects with a computer.
Turing’s work inspires AI chatbots likeChatGPT.
It and others have passed the Turing test in controlled prefs.
Alphotographic/Getty Images
What Are the Limitations of the Turing Test?
In the early days of AI research, Turing test questions had to be restricted to specific topics.
They also had to be limited to “Yes” or “No” responses.
Instead, judges develop their own questions.
The Turing test is mostly useful to gauge the progress of natural-language AIs.
Ones that pass or even come close to passing are considered especially advanced.
The test also provides data that develops can use to improve their programs by showing where they have difficulty.
