Would you mistake a computer for a human?
That’s the basis of the Turing Test, a version of which plays out every year in the form of the Loebner Prize. Programmers bring their best work, and there’s a control group of actual humans.
This week on Talk the Talk, linguist Daniel Midgley chats with Brian Christian, who assisted with the contest to find the most human computer, and wrote up his adventures in a book, The Most Human Human.
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Bonus audio
Show notes
Here’s the Guardian article, which was my starting point for finding out about Brian’s book.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/30/computers-v-humans-loebner-artificial-intelligence
Brian mentions the MGonz program, and here it is:
http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/~humphrys/eliza.html
Amazon link to Brian’s book:
http://www.amazon.com/Most-Human-Talking-Computers-Teaches/dp/0385533063
