The Turing Test

1
The Turing Test
2
What Is Turing Test?

• A person and a computer, being separated in two
  rooms, answer the testers 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.

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What Is Turing Test For?

• To check whether a machine is as intelligent as
  humans.

4
Why Turing Test?

• One needs a benchmark for machine intelligence.
• Its 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.

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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.

6
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.

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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.

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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

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Ambiguities in Objectives of Turing Test

• Intelligence defined in terms of results or
  in terms of process?
• Understanding?
• Semantics vs. symbolic?

10
Searles 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.

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What Searles 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!

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Searles Arguments

• Programs are entirely syntactical.
• Minds have a semantics.
• Syntax is not same as, or sufficient for,
  semantics.
• Therefore, computer programs are not minds

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Flaws in Searles Arguments
J. Wang

• 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.

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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.

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Example of E.T.
J. Wang

• Suppose that E.T. is locked in the Searles
  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?

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Strong AI

• Strong AI asserts that humans 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.

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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 machines intelligence / consciousness,
  which is as (or more) acceptable, practical and
  effective as (than) Turing Test.