Computer program Eugene Goostman becomes first to trick humans into thinking it is a real person

A “SUPER COMPUTER” has duped humans
into thinking it was a 13-year-old boy to
become the first machine to pass the
“iconic” Turing test, experts say.
Five machines were tested at the Royal Society
in central London to see if they could fool
people into thinking they were humans during
text-based conversations.
The test was devised in 1950 by computer
science pioneer and World War II code breaker
Alan Turing, who said that if a machine was
indistinguishable from a human, then it was
“thinking”.
No computer had ever previously passed the
Turing test, which requires 30 per cent of
human interrogators to be duped during a
series of five-minute keyboard conversations,
organisers from the University of Reading said.
But “Eugene Goostman”, a computer program
developed to simulate a 13-year-old boy,
managed to convince 33 per cent of the judges
that it was human, the university said.
Professor Kevin Warwick, from the University
of Reading, said: “In the field of artificial
intelligence there is no more iconic and
controversial milestone than the Turing test.
“It is fitting that such an important landmark
has been reached at the Royal Society in
London, the home of British science and the
scene of many great advances in human
understanding over the centuries. This
milestone will go down in history as one of the
most exciting.”
The successful machine was created by Russian-
born Vladimir Veselov, who lives in the United
States, and Ukrainian Eugene Demchenko who
lives in Russia.
Veselov said: “It’s a remarkable achievement
for us and we hope it boosts interest in
artificial intelligence and chatbots.”
Prof Warwick said there had been previous
claims that the test was passed in similar
competitions around the world.
“A true Turing test does not set the questions
or topics prior to the conversations,” he said.
“We are therefore proud to declare that Alan
Turing’s test was passed for the first time.”
Prof Warwick said having a computer with such
artificial intelligence had “implications for
society” and would serve as a “wake-up call to
cybercrime”.
The event on Saturday was poignant as it took
place on the 60th anniversary of the death of
Turing, who laid the foundations of modern
computing.