An historic
milestone in artificial intelligence set by Alan Turing -- the father of
modern computer science -- has been achieved at an event organised by
the University of Reading.
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.The Turing Test is based on 20th century mathematician and code-breaker Turing's 1950 famous question and answer game, 'Can Machines Think?'. The experiment investigates whether people can detect if they are talking to machines or humans. The event is particularly poignant as it took place on the 60th anniversary of Turing's death, nearly six months after he was given a posthumous royal pardon.
If a computer is
mistaken for a human more than 30% of the time during a series of five
minute keyboard conversations it passes the test. No computer has ever
achieved this, until now. Eugene managed to convince 33% of the human
judges that it was human.
This historic event was organised by
the University's School of Systems Engineering in partnership with
RoboLaw, an EU-funded organisation examining the regulation of emerging
robotic technologies.
Professor Kevin Warwick, a Visiting
Professor at the University of Reading and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for
Research at Coventry University, said: "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. It is fitting that such an important landmark has been reached at
the Royal Society in London, the home of British Science and the scene
of many great advances in human understanding over the centuries. This
milestone will go down in history as one of the most exciting.
"Some
will claim that the Test has already been passed. The words Turing Test
have been applied to similar competitions around the world. However
this event involved the most simultaneous comparison tests than ever
before, was independently verified and, crucially, the conversations
were unrestricted. A true Turing Test does not set the questions or
topics prior to the conversations. We are therefore proud to declare
that Alan Turing's Test was passed for the first time on Saturday.
"Of
course the Test has implications for society today. 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."
Eugene was
one of five supercomputers battling it for the Turing Test 2014 Prize.
On winning the competition and achieving this historic milestone
Vladimir Veselov said:
"I want to congratulate everyone who
worked on Eugene Goostman. Our whole team is very excited with this
result. It's a remarkable achievement for us and we hope it boosts
interest in artificial intelligence and chatbots. Special thanks to
Professor Kevin Warwick and Dr Huma Shah for their effort in organising
the event.
"Eugene was 'born' in 2001. 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. We spent a lot of time
developing a character with a believable personality. This year we
improved the 'dialog controller' which makes the conversation far more
human-like when compared to programs that just answer questions. Going
forward we plan to make Eugene smarter and continue working on improving
what we refer to as 'conversation logic'."
Among the judges
tasked with separating the human and computer participants were the
actor Robert Llewellyn, who played robot Kryten in the sci-fi comedy TV
series Red Dwarf, and Lord Sharkey, who led the successful campaign for
Alan Turing's posthumous pardon last year.
Professor Warwick
concluded: "Not long before he died on 7 June 1954 Alan Turing, himself a
Fellow of the Royal Society, predicted that in time this test would be
passed. It is difficult to conceive that he could possibly have imagined
what computers of today, and the networking that links them, would be
like."
Uploded By,
Divya G AP/CSE
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