Turing test facts for kids
The Turing test is a test to see if a computer can trick a person into believing that the computer is a person too. Alan Turing thought that if a human could not tell the difference between another human and the computer, then that computer must be as intelligent as a human.
Test setup
A person has a telegraph, and is connected to two communication partners. One of the two correspondents is a machine. The person can ask anything, with the telegraph. If the person cannot tell which of the two is the machine more than 50% of the time, then the machine is said to be intelligent (or smart).
Later on, people narrowed down the test. A human is unlikely to know everything. Therefore, both the human and the machine would be specialists in some field of knowledge. So would the person asking.
As of 2009, no one has made a computer that can pass the Turing test. However, Elbot came close to 30%.
The comic strip Dilbert makes several mentions to the PHB (Pointy Haired Boss) failing the turning test.
- Machines Who Think, on season 2 , episode 5 of Scientific American Frontiers.
Images for kids
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The "standard interpretation" of the Turing test, in which player C, the interrogator, is given the task of trying to determine which player – A or B – is a computer and which is a human. The interrogator is limited to using the responses to written questions to make the determination.
See also
In Spanish: Prueba de Turing para niños
