The Turing Test in 1950 – History of AI

Can Machines Think ?

In 1950, The British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing asked the question: Can Machines Think ? in his research paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”.

Turing proposed a practical way to test machine intelligence later called as Turing Test.

What Turing Proposed ?

If a machine can behave like a human during a conversation, then it could be considered intelligent.

How the Turing Test Works ?

This test involves three participants

1. A Human Judge
2. A Human Participant
3. A machine (computer program)

The test goes like this:

• The Judge sends questions to both to the human and machine through text messages only.
• Both participants respond through text.
• The judge reads the answers and tries to determine which response came from human or which response came from machine ? The judge can ask follow-up questions to test the responses.
• If the judge cannot reliably tell the difference between the machine and the human, the machine is said to have Passed the Turing Test.