The Turing Test

I propose to consider the question "Can machines think?" This should begin with definitions of the meaning of the terms "machine" and "think."

Alan Turing (1950) "Computing Machinery and Artificial Intelligence", Mind vol. 59

This paper (sometimes called "The Turing Test paper") is one of the most important papers in the field of Cognitive Science. It sets out to answer the question of whether it is possible for us to build a thinking machine, a question that many Philosophers are still arguing about. There have been a number of challenges to the test of intelligence outlined in the paper (see, for example, Searle's "Chinese Room" argument, 1980), but it remains one of the most influential arguments in the Philosophy of Mind, and has clear importance for the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). For the purposes of the tutorial, students are asked to read the original paper bearing the following questions in mind (perhaps preparing short answers to them).

  1. If you were about to perform the Turing Test, what questions would you ask?
  2. If a machine were to pass the Turing Test, do you think it would be intelligent?
  3. What sort of attributes do you think constitute intelligence? (e.g.; creativity, intuition, language, problem solving ....) For this question, you should come up with a list.
  4. Arrange the contents of this list into those attributes that are necessary for intelligence, and those that are not required for intelligence but that are signs of intelligence.
  5. For the list you have made for question three, think about how a computer might be able to exhibit this type of behaviour.

The following links are additional reading material that students could look into if they were interested. I thoroughly recommend a visit to the Alan Turing web resource, to find out about the person behind some of the greatest ideas in computing.

If you want to try out the turing test on something, here are a few chatterbots.

How does each work?

Do the same questions catch them all out?