"READING, England - Computers argued, cracked jokes and parried trick questions Sunday, all part of an annual test of artificial intelligence carried out at the University of Reading."
This test of man vs. machine pitted a dozen volunteers in a chat room situation using split screen terminals and having a chat with a human and a chat bot. The winner of the Loebner Artificial Intelligenge Award, only a bronze was Fred Roberts and Elbot, together they tricked three of the dozen judges. Mr. Roberts jokingly quipped that he "wished" he was as good at conversation as Elbot.
These contests are based on the concepts of a British mathematician Alan Turing. Simply put, humans probably would be influenced if they knew which was man and which was machine so by simultaneously chatting with one of each that subjectivity isn't a factor.
No computer has ever won the silver or gold medal in these contests, the criteria for those awards would be "something akin to IBM'S Deep Blue" beating Gerry Kasparov in 1997" said my favorite scientist Prof. Kevin Warrick.
More surprising to me was a comment made by the winner. "I don't think it's thought at all" adding "If you know a magic trick, you know how it's done, it's not magic anymore. Sorry to be so pessimistic"
That analogy doesn't hold water with me at all. It's not magic at all, it's called artifical intelligence for a reason.
