The Turing Test

What Is Turing Test? A person and a computer, being separated in two rooms, answer the tester’s questions on-line. If the interrogator cannot tell whether he/she is talking to is a person or a computer, then the computer is viewed to be as intelligent as the person.

What Is Turing Test For? To check whether a machine is as intelligent as humans.

Why Turing Test? One needs a benchmark for machine intelligence. It’s difficult to measure internal intelligence mechanism – because we do not quite understand it yet, and different persons may have different mechanisms. “External performance” is a objective, measurable and consistent benchmark.

Feature of Turing Test It gives an objective notion of intelligence. It tests only intelligence of “brain without body”, whose inputs are from the keyboard whose outputs are sentences on screen. Its judgment is based on the reactions of the machine rather than its pro-actions.

Test Intelligence or Test Consciousness? Turing test was designed to test machine intelligence. Its principle can be used to test machine consciousnesses such as emotions and self-awareness.

Intelligence vs. Consciousness Different between intelligence and consciousness? Higher level consciousnesses pre- require higher level intelligence, though it is controversial whether lower level consciousnesses must be associated with certain level of intelligence.

Is a Machine Passed Turing Test Intelligent? Its “art intelligence” and “sport intelligence” are not tested. It passes the “intelligence of thinking”. If a human-like robot showed such intelligence, then we would not distinguish it from a real person in terms of intelligence of thinking. Some insist that intelligence or not should be determined by its internal mechanism …

Ambiguities in Objectives of Turing Test Intelligence – defined in terms of “results” or in terms of “process”? Understanding? Semantics vs. symbolic?

Searle’s Chinese Room A person knowing nothing about Chinese is locked in a room with a rule book about Chinese symbols. He answers questions in Chinese given to him from the outside according to the instructions in the rule book.

What Searle’s Chinese Room Shows From the stand point of a person outside of the room, the person in the room understands Chinese well since he answered the questions in Chinese perfectly. But the person inside the room knows not a single word of Chinese!

Searle’s Arguments 1.Programs are entirely syntactical. 2.Minds have a semantics. 3.Syntax is not same as, or sufficient for, semantics. Therefore, computer programs are not minds

Flaws in Searle’s Arguments He is assuming what he is proving: –He is proving “computer programs are not mind, i.e., they are entirely syntactical”; –He assume “programs are entirely syntactical”. Lack of definition of “semantics”. Lack of rigorous proofs of: –Programs cannot be semantics –Programs are entirely syntactical. J. Wang

What Searle Wants to Say A computer may look intelligent, understanding, touching, and even emotional, but it achieved them by following digital symbol processing rules, which are the simulations of intelligence, understanding, touching, and emotions. Simulation of an explosion is never an explosion.

Example of E.T. Suppose that E.T. is locked in the Searle’s Chinese Room, and he/she (it?) does the translation work perfectly. Would we hesitate to say, “Hey, E.T. understands Chinese!” Would we care how E.T. does the translation? J. Wang

Strong AI Strong AI asserts that human’s mind (intelligence, consciousness, emotion, spirit and soul) can be programmed on computers. Advocators include R. Kurzweil, M. Minsky, H. Moravec, B. Joy, J. Hall, W. Bainbridge, T. Kaczynski Opponents / skeptics include J. Searle, J. Hawkins, R. Penrose, D. Hofstadter.

Anyway Better Than Turing Test? Despite of the criticism on Turing Test, no one has so far has put forward an alternative way of testing machine’s intelligence / consciousness, which is as (or more) acceptable, practical and effective as (than) Turing Test.