The Turing Test:
the first 50 years
Robert M. French
Trends in Cognitive Science, Vol. 4, No. 3, March 2000
Summarized by Eun Seok Lee
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Outlines
• The value and the history of the TT
• Arguments around the Test
• Considerations on intelligence itself
• Variations on the Test
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TT’s Contributions
• Theoretical: developed a simple mathematical
model for a universal computing machine
• Practical: developed one of the first electronic,
programmable, digital computers
• Philosophical: provided an elegant operational
definition of thinking that set the entire field of AI –
‘the Imitation Game’ (Mind 59, 1950)
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Imitation Game (the Turing Test)
• No reason to deny intelligence to a machine that
could imitate a human’s unrestricted conversation
• Only to provide a sufficient condition for
intelligence
– Many humans also fail.
• First realistic chance of actual achieving the goal of
mechanized thought
• The very essence: Our judgment of how well
machines act like humans
– ‘To what extent do machines have to act like humans
before it becomes immoral to damage or destroy them?’
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Shift in Perception of the TT
• Too much high optimism
– Simon and Newell (1958), Minsky (1967)…
• The debate: “is it a sufficient condition for
intelligence or not?”
– Minsky (1982)’s statement
• Turing’s comments on:
– Mathematical objection based on Goedel’s Theorem
– Objection from literature on ‘Consciousness,’ or ‘problem
of other minds’
– Lady Lovelace’s objection: “Machines can only do what we
know how to order it to do.”
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Combinatorial Explosion:
Block (1981) and Searle (1980)
• Block: “the Test is just for behavior”
1500
– Objection: For an hour’s test, it needs 10
20-word
strings
– i.e. “Does the word splugpud sound very pretty to you?”
• Searle: ‘the Chinese Room thought experiment’
– Objection: All answers must be stored in the room
– i.e. “Would the last character in this question be likely to
embarrass a very shy young woman?” with a distorted but
clearly recognizable manner for native Chinese
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Harnard’s Total Turing Test
(1991, 1994)
• t1: The ‘toy-model’, or low level. Current AI
• T2: Turing’s original. Symbols-in/out manner
• T3: ‘Screen’ is removed. Robotic. Physically indistinguishable.
Mental semantics must be ‘grounded.’ Meanings from
interactions with the external environment.
• T4: ‘Microfunctional Indistinguishability.’ Down to the neuron
and neurotransmitter.
• T5: ‘Grand Unified Theories of Everything.’ Down to the last
electron.
• Intelligence must be embodied into environments
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Variations on the Theme:
Questions on the Intelligence
• Mitchie’s ‘Superarticulacy’ (1993)
– Assuming completely rule-based intelligence
– Human ability to know without being able to articulate that
knowledge
• Watt’s Inverted Turing Test (1996)
– From ‘naïve psychology’ to ascribe other humans’ mind
– The machine should distinguish a human from a machine
• Loebner Prize
– Colby’s PARRY: A paranoid schizophrenic
– Weizenbaum’s ELIZA: A psychiatrist’s discussion
– Minsky’s offering
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