Tests that show machines closing in on human abilities - tech - 22 January 2009 - New Scientist

Description

It may have been dreamt up in 1950, but the Turing test - a simple way to tell if a machine can think - still holds powerful sway over many researchers striving to produce a machine at least in some respects equal with a human.

Nowadays, although UK mathematician Alan Turing's test is still relevant, and unbeaten, new forms of it have evolved. In this online special, New Scientist discovers the different ways in which machines can be tested for human-like abilities - and how close they have come to passing as one of us.
I chat, therefore I think

Turing's biggest insight was that it is impossible to know for sure if a machine - or indeed another person - is actually thinking. So he rephrased the question to one that is much easier to answer: Can a machine act like it is thinking?

Original URL

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16461-tests-that-show-machines-closing-in-on-human-abilities.html?full=true

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16461-tests-that-show-machines-closing-in-on-human-abilities.html?full=true