From macklin@csusm.edu Fri Sep 30 17:15:31 EDT 1994 Article: 24419 of comp.ai Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!yale!yale.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!nic-nac.CSU.net!coyote.csusm.edu!macklin From: macklin@csusm.edu () Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Loebner Prize Competition Date: 28 Sep 1994 00:12:57 GMT Organization: California State University San Marcos Lines: 136 Message-ID: <36ace9$qja@coyote.csusm.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: coyote.csusm.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] ********************************************************************** NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS For Immediate Release September 1, 1994 ********************************************************************** INTERNATIONAL QUEST FOR THINKING COMPUTER TO BE HELD IN SAN DIEGO (Human vs. Computers on December 16th) In the near future, human beings may be joined by an equally intelligent species -- computers so smart that they can truly think, converse, and perhaps even feel. To expedite the search for the first member of this new species, the fourth annual Loebner Prize Competition in Artificial Intelligence will be held at the new San Marcos campus of California State University on Friday, December 16th, 1994. The Loebner Prize pits humans against computers in what the Wall Street Journal described as "a groundbreaking battle." The first three competitions drew national and international media coverage. In the event, human judges converse at computer terminals and attempt to determine which terminals are controlled by fellow humans and which by computers. For the 1994 competition, conversation will be restricted to certain topics. This year, as in 1993, all judges will be members of the national press. The 1993 judges represented TIME Magazine, Popular Science, PBS, the Voice of America, and elsewhere. The contest has drawn media attention around the world, including coverage on CNN television, PBS television, the New York Times (front page), the Washington Post, the London Guardian, The Economist, the San Diego Union Tribune (front page), Science News, and many periodicals in the computer field, including Computerworld and AI Magazine (cover story). "Surprisingly, in early competitions, some of the computers fooled some of the judges into thinking they were people," said Dr. Robert Epstein, Research Professor at National University, Director Emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, and the organizer and director of the three previous contests. The author of the winning software of this year's event will receive $2,000 and a bronze medal. In 1995, Epstein said, the first open-ended contest -- one with no topic restrictions -- will be conducted. When a computer can pass an unrestricted test, the grand prize of $100,000 will be awarded, and the contest will be discontinued. The competition is named after benefactor Dr. Hugh G. Loebner of New York City and was inspired by computer pioneer Alan Turing, who in 1950 proposed a test like the Loebner contest as a way to answer the question: Can computers think? A partial list of sponsors of previous competitions includes: Apple Computers, Computerland, Crown Industries, GDE Systems, IBM Personal Computer Company's Center for Natural Computing, Greenwich Capital Markets, Motorola, the National Science Foundation, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and The Weingart Foundation. Application guidelines: Official rules and an application may be obtained via email by sending a message to "loebner@coyote.csusm.edu" with the subject line of the message reading "send nnnnn" where "nnnnn" is one of the files listed below. The body of the message should be empty. The files that can be requested are: info-letter (a short introduction) order-form (an order form for transcripts and diskettes) press-release (this document) official-rules (official rules and application) technical-notes (technical notes for the contest) all (all of the above documents) Those with access to the web can access this information at http://coyote.csusm.edu/loebner_contest.html Those without access to either email or the web can contact: Dr. Robert Epstein, Contest Director 933 Woodlake Drive, Cardiff by the Sea, CA 92007-1009 Tel: 619-436-4400, Fax: 619-436-4490. * The deadline for receipt of applications is November 1, 1994. * Applications must be accompanied by printed protocols recording actual interaction between the system to be entered and one or more humans. The protocols may not exceed ten double-spaced pages. * Applications must specify a single domain of discourse in which the computer system is proficient. The domain must be expressed by an English phrase containing no more than five words. * Each entry must communicate using approximations of natural English, and it must be prepared to communicate for an indefinite period of time. * Computer entries may contain standard or customized hardware and software. The hardware may be of any type as long as it is inorganic and as long as its replies are not controlled by humans responding in real time to the judges' inputs. * Entrants must be prepared to interface their systems to standard computer terminals over telephone lines at 2400 baud. * The prize will be awarded if there is at least one entry. Advance notice of new guidelines for 1995: The 1995 event will be an unrestricted Turing Test, requiring computer entries to be able to converse for an indefinite period of time with no topic restrictions. In 1995, entries may be required to run on hardware located at the competition site. For further information: Complete transcripts and IBM-compatible diskettes that play the 1991, 1992, and 1993 conversations in real-time are available for purchase from the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies (tel: 617-491-9020, fax 1072; e-mail: 76557.1175@compuserve.com). Sponsorship opportunities are available. ************************ CONTACTS: Dr. Robert Epstein Contest Director 619-436-4400 (fax 4490) repstein@nunic.nu.edu Dr. Hugh G. Loebner Prize Donor 201-672-2277 (fax 7536) loebner@acm.org ************************ -- Teresa Macklin phone: 619-752-4787 Computing & Telecommunications email: macklin@tsunami.csusm.edu CSUSM