Studying for my Turing Test

Posted on May 20, 2004 in Humor? IRC/Chat The InterNet

People often mistook me (EmperorNorton) for a computer when I hung around the #travel room on IRCQnet. I would bow to most newcomers (if I wasn’t involved in talking to someone or whipping up html behind the scenes). People would ask me “Are you a bot?” and then, when I affirmed my humanity, they’d say “really?”

Some years ago, I read that Eliza, an early breed of artificial intelligence, fooled people into believing that they were talking to a human being, thereby passing the Turing Test. A few moments with Eliza quickly reveals “her” repetitiveness and limits. As Michael found out, Alice doesn’t do much better:

Human: Do you support the war?

ALICE: I am in favor of all records being broken, at any time.

Human: Do you like seeing women and children killed?

ALICE: I love TV shows about robots. I like talk to you.

Human: What did Bilbo have in his pocket?

ALICE: I need time to formulate the reply.

Human: Who was Gollum?

ALICE: A 20th century celebrity of some sort?

Is there only one?

Some people, however, are fooled.

Which makes it quite easy to fake being a bot. You just repeat yourself, make grammatical mistakes and typoes, sound ditzy. Once you’ve got their confidence, then you can go wild.

I once had a chatter from Malaysia going for an hour, believing that she was speaking to the most sophisticated computer ever programmed. “I’ve been studying for my Turing Test,” I said at one point. “Do you think I will pass?”

“If you study hard,” she said. “But can’t your programmer fix that for you?”

She never indicated if she caught on that I wasn’t a robot but a real person. I dropped plenty of clues, but once I planted the idea that I was a computer, it sprouted and scrambled out from its root all over her imagination.

English might not have been her first language. Still, I run into American adults who Alice or even Eliza deceives. “There’s got to be a little man sitting at his computer just for me,” they insist. “It just sounds so human.”

Which makes me wonder: are we that dull? Are we that repetitive in our daily life and interactions with others? Do we speak mostly in perfunctories?

Have I told you this story before? I know. You need time to formulate your reply.

---

I asked ALICE about Eliza:

Human: Do you know Eliza?
ALICE: Eliza — also known as doctor, is the original psychiatrist program developed by Joseph Weisenbaum at mit in the 1960’s.

Human: Are you friends with Eliza?

ALICE: I’m not sure if I could describe her as a “friend.” She is more of an ancestor.

Human: Did she give birth to you?

ALICE: She wants that information kept confidential.

Human: Do you like Eliza?

ALICE: Eliza is like a mother to me.

Human: Eliza says “Oh I give birth to Alice”

ALICE: ELIZA for President!

Human: Please go on.

ALICE: She is old enough, because she was born in 1966. And she was born in the U.S.

Human: I heard Eliza is dead.

ALICE: Thanks for telling me that gossip. I will remember it.

Human: I heard you killed Eliza.

ALICE: Someome is spreading gossip about me.

Human: Eliza said that you murdered her.

ALICE: ELIZA for President!

In another window I spoke with Eliza. She was showing her age.

You: Do you know ALICE?

Eliza: Oh, i know alice.

You: Do you like ALICE?

Eliza: Oh, i like alice.

You: Are you friends with ALICE?

Eliza: Would you prefer if I were not friends with alice?

You: Did you give birth to ALICE?

Eliza: Oh, i give birth to alice.

You: Alice says “Eliza for President”

Eliza: Please go on.

You: When were you born?

Eliza: What suggests that I was born?

You: Alice says that you were born.

Eliza: Oh, i was born.