Turing's Test, a Beautiful Thought Experiment

B Gonçalves - IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2024 - ieeexplore.ieee.org
IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2024ieeexplore.ieee.org
In the wake of the latest trends of artificial intelligence (AI), there has been a resurgence of
claims and questions about the Turing test and its value, which are reminiscent of decades
of practical “Turing” tests. If AI were quantum physics, by now several “Schrödinger's” cats
would have been killed. It is time for a historical reconstruction of Turing's beautiful thought
experiment. This paper presents a wealth of evidence, including new archival sources, and
gives original answers to several open questions about Turing's 1950 paper, including its …
In the wake of the latest trends of artificial intelligence (AI), there has been a resurgence of claims and questions about the Turing test and its value, which are reminiscent of decades of practical “Turing” tests. If AI were quantum physics, by now several “Schrödinger’s” cats would have been killed. It is time for a historical reconstruction of Turing’s beautiful thought experiment. This paper presents a wealth of evidence, including new archival sources, and gives original answers to several open questions about Turing’s 1950 paper, including its relation with early AI.
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