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Article 3628 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Real-life Turing test
Message-ID: <1992Feb10.235221.56220@spss.com>
Date: 10 Feb 92 23:52:21 GMT
Organization: SPSS, Inc.
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Nntp-Posting-Host: spssrs7.spss.com

For those who still think the Turing Test is a sufficient test for
intelligence, there is food for thought in the results of the Loebner Prize 
Competition in Boston, in which ten judges Turing-tested six programs and 
two human beings.  A program called PC Therapist, created by Joseph 
Weintraub, was judged as human by _five out of ten_ judges.

The conversations were restricted by topic (to give the programs a fighting
chance), and PC Therapist's topic was "whimsical conversation."  Some samples:

Judge: How do you define whimsical?
Terminal: A whim is a sudden, capricious and often peculiar change in 
   behavior... a bit of sunlight in this grim, gray world!
J: Pretty pessimistic view of the world.  Have you ever gotten yourself
   in trouble because of your whims?
T: My country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world, 
   wouldn't you agree?  You aren't really talking about me, are you?
[...]
J: Can't you once just answer me a direct question with a direct reply?
T: A sudden, bold and unexpected question will frequently catch me
   by surprise!  You like to think I once just answer you, don't you?  
   Sometimes I wish I was a systems analyst.

Just let this sink in: half of the judges thought that this sort of drivel
showed human intelligence.


