Turing’s Intelligence: Now

“The original question, ‘can machines think’ I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion. Nevertheless I believe that at the end of the [20th] century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted,” Alan Turing said in 1950. Artificial intelligence has many brilliant founders, but Turing stands out as a pivotal figure, especially for his elaboration of the Turing Test: would you be able to distinguish a computer from a person in a blind conversation—and if not, to what degree would the computer have ‘intelligence’? The rapid development of AI—far more rapid than could have been anticipated at the start of the 21st century—has posed deeper questions concerning the capacity of computers compared to humans. The issue of how to define consciousness may require more sophisticated tests. The Turing Test still stands as a reference underlying whatever means we ultimately adopt for considering differences between computers and humans, although it now seems that ability with language is only part of the story. Truly we are living through Turing’s Revolution.