What's the Turing in Turing test

Q. What is the Turing Test

A. The Turing Test is a means by which to determine the presence of artificial intelligence (AI) in computer programs. It was proposed by the British mathematician Alan Turing, hence the name. The gist of it is that a computer can be considered sentient if it can be established that it is using intelligent thought rather than just rehashing parrotted information.

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Q. How does this work

A. Turing said, 'I propose to consider the question "Can machines think " This should begin with definitions of the meaning of the terms "machine" and "think".' He sought to cut through the philosophical debate about how exactly to define thinking by means of a very practical test. In essence, he suggested that if a computer acts, reacts and interacts like a sentient being, then it should be called sentient.

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In order to test this he came up with what is known as the 'imitation game', which requires a human interrogator to attempt distinguish between a computer and a human subject based on their replies to various questions. The more the answers converge, the more 'intelligence' the computer is displaying; the more they diverge, the more 'programmed' and un-sentient the machine is.

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However, there is a school of though which posits that any evidence for original thought can be denied on the grounds that all information was ultimately programmed into the computer.

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Q. Who was Alan Turing

A. Alan Turing (1912-1954) is considered by many to be the founding father of artificial intelligence and computer science. While at Bletchley Park - the WWII code-breaking establishment - Turing played a crucial role in designing a machine called the 'Bombe' that could decipher the messages sent by the Germans to their U-boats in the North Atlantic. (Strangley, despite his crucial work,�Turing does not appear in the recently released film about Bletchley park, Enigma. It has been suggested that this is 'airbrushing', as Turing's homosexuality may not have been in keeping with the tone of the film.)

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Born into a upper middle class English family, his talent for mathematics and his lack of interest in any other subject became apparent soon after he started Sherbourne School. After King's College, Cambridge, he worked at Princeton University in the USA, after which he returned to King's to take up a fellowship. One of the most distinguished mathematicians of his day, he apparently committed suicide, probably because of the medical treatment that he had been forced to undergo - in lieu of prison - to 'cure' him of his homosexuality.

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Q. What is artificial intelligence

A. AI is the art of making machines appear to be able to 'think'. There are, at the very highest level, two sorts of AI: sentient AIs and non-sentient AIs. Sentient means 'aware of your own existence' - a state of being computers have yet to acieve - and is generally regarded to be a good sign of intelligence.

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Q. Has any computer passed the Turing Test

A. Not yet, though a few years ago IBM developed Deep Blue, at the time the most advanced chess-playing computer in the world. Computers that play chess had been around for some time because chess is a problem that is easily amenable to mathematical analysis. Deep Blue was the culmination of these and was so good at its job it even beat the Grand Master of the time, Gary Kasparov.

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However, Deep Blue for all its apparent intelligence, was little more than a large calculator. It beat humans by a technique known as 'look-ahead' - that is, after every move was made it would work out every possible move it could make, then looked at every possible move the human player could make for each one and so on. Even with very fast processors this took several minutes. The best move would then be chosen. It was not using skill, just maths.

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See also the article on Turing and the breaking of the Enigma Code

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For more on Phrases & Sayings click here

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By Simon Smith