Who is Alan Turing you might ask. Well, that’s a good question. Turing can be best described as a British mathematician who is considered to be the father of modern computer science. His accomplishments include:
- He broke Nazi codes that helped win World War II
- He created a secure speech encryption system
- He made major contributions to logic and philosophy
- He invented the concept of Artificial Intelligence
However he was also gay. Today that wouldn’t have been a big deal. But 60 years ago, that was a crime. One that he was convicted of. That lead to his suicide at age 41. For years, people including Steven Hawking have fought to clear his name and yesterday they succeeded. He was given a rare royal pardon. Something that has only happened three times previously. Now, some will say that this pardon is basically dropping the charges and that’s not enough. But the fact is that you can’t go back to 1952 and make the case disappear. So the best that the British government can do is say that they regret what happened. That is something that cannot be ignored and it’s better late than never.
In the meantime, I would encourage you all to read about Alan Turing because without him, your smartphone, the moon landing or even Siri would not exist.
A Computer Passes The Turing Test For The First Time
Posted in Commentary with tags AI, Alan Turing on June 8, 2014 by itnerdWhat is the Turing Test you ask? It’s a test developed by Alan Turing to test the ability of a computer to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. The test does not check the ability to give the correct answer to questions; it checks how closely the answer resembles typical human answers. The second that computers can pass this test, humans might be in trouble.
A Russian-based team is said to be the first to create a program that passed the Turing Test. Here’s what The Independent had to say:
Eugene Goostman, a computer programme made by a team based in Russia, succeeded in a test conducted at the Royal Society in London. It convinced 33 per cent of the judges that it was human, said academics at the University of Reading, which organised the test.
It is thought to be the first computer to pass the iconic test. Though other programmes have claimed successes, those included set topics or questions in advance.
Now before someone sends me an e-mail asking me how long before we get something like SkyNet which was the computer that tried to exterminate humans in the Terminator movies or HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, we’re still a ways around from that. This computer that beat the Turing Test is good at conversation logic and nothing deeper than that. Still, this will likely be remembered as the moment that artificial intelligence started to catch up to what humans can do.
Great, just great.
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