In honor of the 100th anniversary of mathematician and logician Alan Turing's birth, I was lucky enough to sit down with some of the most influential computer scientists in the world at the Association for Computing Machinery's 2012 Turing Award celebration. I asked them, "what is the Turing test?"
To hear their answers, click the link below and/or watch the video above. And, please join us next week for our two-part special celebrating the brilliant life and tragic death of Alan Turing, the father of computer science.
CARA SANTA MARIA: Hi everyone, Cara Santa Maria here. In honor of the 100th anniversary of mathematician and logician Alan Turing's birth, I was lucky enough to sit down with some of the most influential computer scientists in the world at the Association for Computing Machinery's 2012 Turing Award celebration. I asked them, "what is the Turing test?"
WENDY HALL: Turing test is about...
WILLIAM NEWMAN: Oh that's more to do with...
CHRISTOS PAPADIMITRIOU: The Turing test is...
JUDEA PEARL: Turing test was a...
FRANCES ALLEN: What...
CHARLES BACHMAN: The Turing test again is a...
WH: Can machines think, basically.
WN: Whether computers can behave like humans.
JP: It's a confession of honesty on the side of Turing.
CB: A struggle for people who are interested in artificial intelligence.
FA: What is behind a curtain.
CP: Whether we would ever be able to create a machine that can fool humans in conversation through teletype.
WN: Whether a computer can in fact be indistinguishable...
CB: Was a person talking back or a machine talking back?
WH: Could a person differentiate between another person and a machine?
CP: So imagine that you have an SMS conversation with somebody and then somebody stops you and asks you, "wait a minute. Are you sure that was a person?" Then you stop and say, "yeah." "Are you sure? Could this be a machine?"
CSM: From IBM's Watson, who defeated Jeopardy superstar Ken Jennings in February 2011 to Siri, that familiar voice from your iPhone, some say that what's lurking behind the curtain is becoming uncanningly intelligent. But does it pass the Turing test? What do you think? Reach out to me on Twitter, Facebook, or leave your comments right here on the Huffington Post. And, please join us next week for our two-part series celebrating the brilliant life and tragic death of Alan Turing, the father of computer science.
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