The Imitation Game: Alan Turing and a need for a new Turing Test
There is a lot of buzz about how AI could/would/does pass the Turing Test. Yesterday, I watched "The Imitation Game." An absolute masterpiece movie based on Alan Turing's inspirational life story. A little late, but better late than never!
Turing was a mathematician and computer scientist. Turing oversaw the campaign to decipher the "impenetrable" Nazi Enigma code during World War II, providing the Allies with a vital advantage that helped shift the conflict's balance. The Enigma code had 159 million million million probabilities! That is 159, followed by eighteen zeros! The work Turing did to advance artificial intelligence, though, will last the longest.
The movie covers a few of Turing's groundbreaking ideas that are still relevant today. Turing says, "?????????????????? ???? ???? ?????? ???????????? ???? ???????? ???? ?????? ?????? ?????????????? ???????????????? ?????? ???? ?????? ???????????? ???? ?????? ?????? ??????????????." Turing anticipated a thinking machine decades before the invention of the digital computer, seeing the potential of machines long before others did. Despite opposition from others, the movie shows Turing's tireless efforts in developing the first computers that could decrypt enemy codes.
Turing is also renowned for developing the groundbreaking "Turing test" to evaluate whether a machine can behave intelligently in a manner comparable to a person's. However, the movie clarifies that Turing was more interested in creating true artificial intelligence rather than merely its appearance.
Joan Clarke tells Alan Turing: "No one normal could have done that. Do you know, this morning... I was on a train that went through a city that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for you. I bought a ticket from a man who would likely be dead if it wasn't for you. I read up on my work... a whole field of scientific inquiry that only exists because of you. Now, if you wish you could have been normal... I can promise you I do not. The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren't."
A text interface is used during the Turing test to facilitate communication between a human assessor and a human and a machine. The Turing test is deemed to have been completed by a machine if the assessor cannot discern between human and machine responses.
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The test served as a significant turning point in artificial intelligence research by offering a standard for intelligence independent of the underlying mechanisms. Turing understood it was more crucial to think like a human than to appear human merely. His experiment prompted decades of AI research on knowledge representation and natural language processing to resemble human conversational abilities more closely.
The Turing test has also had an impact on cognitive science and philosophy. If the test is passed, it suggests that machines can have intelligence on par with that of humans, upending long-held beliefs about the exclusivity of the human race. Even the exam raises moral questions regarding the moral standing of intelligent computers.
The Turing test has its limitations in assessing contemporary AI systems, despite their significant effects. Recent deep learning and neural network developments have enabled AI bots to hold remarkably human-like conversations. Instead of true comprehension, systems like Google's Dialogflow can pass the Turing test using statistical language models. It is impossible to know from the test whether the conversational abilities of the computer are supported by a "mind" or real intelligence.
We may require revised tests to assess artificial general intelligence that approaches human-level capabilities accurately. Personalized long-term Turing testing with a consistency focus, common sense tests requiring knowledge of the actual world, and hybrid tests fusing natural discourse with embodied tasks are a few examples of potential tests. An iteration of the Turing test is used annually for the Loebner Prize for artificial intelligence.
As we develop technologies that aim to mimic the functioning of the human mind, Alan Turing's deep insights into intelligence are still important today. The Turing test was a significant advance, but more work and new evaluation criteria are needed to develop true artificial general intellect that can compete with that of humans. Turing aided the search for understanding both natural and artificial intelligence.
In today's world, where a paper titled "Attention is all you need." is causing deep ripples, Mr. Alan Turing would have asked, "Are you paying Attention?" as he does in the movie!