Turing Test

What is the Turing test?

In 1950, Alan Turing introduced a test known as the “Turing test” to check whether a machine can think like a human or not. In this test, Turing proposed that the computer can be intelligent if it can mimic human response under specific conditions.

What is the Turing test based on?

The Turing test is based on a party game, I.e., the “Imitation Game,” with some modifications. This game involves three players in which one player is a computer, another player is a human responder, and the third player is a human Interrogator, who is isolated from the other two players. His job is to find out which player is a machine among the two of them.

Player A is a computer, Player B is a human, and Player C is an interrogator. The interrogator knows that one of them is a machine, but he needs to identify this based on some questions and their responses. The conversation between all players is via keyboard and screen, so the result would not depend on the machine’s ability to convert words into speech. The test result depends not on each correct answer but on how close its responses are to a human answer. The computer is permitted to do everything possible to force a wrong identification. The computer successfully passes the test if an interrogator cannot identify a machine and a human in this game. The machine is said to be intelligent and can think like a human.

What are the features required for a machine to pass the Turing test?

Below are the features required for a machine to pass the Turing Test:

• Natural Language Processing: NLP must communicate with the interrogator in a general human language like English.
• Knowledge representation:To store and retrieve information during the test.
• Automated reasoning:To use the previously stored information for answering the questions.
• Machine learning:To adapt to new changes and detect generalized patterns.
• Vision:To recognize the interrogator’s actions and other objects during a test.
• Motor Control:To act upon objects if requested.