For the first time ever, a computer has passed the “Turning Test”

Since programmers began seriously grappling with the impending reality of intelligent computers in the 1950s, pioneering Inventor Alan Turing said that the first big milestone would come when we cannot distinguish between computers and humans in conversation. Well, that day has finally come. This weekend, a computer program convinced 33 percent of a panel of judges at the University Reading that it was a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy, reports The Independent. That means the program passes Turning’s AI litmus test of fooling humans at least 30 percent of the time on average.

A programme that convinced humans that it was a 13-year-old boy has become the first computer ever to pass the Turing Test. The test — which requires that computers are indistinguishable from humans — is considered a landmark in the development of artificial intelligence, but academics have warned that the technology could be used for cybercrime. Computing pioneer Alan Turing said that a computer could be understood to be thinking if it passed the test, which requires that a computer dupes 30 per cent of human interrogators in five-minute text conversations. Eugene Goostman, a computer programme made by a team based in Russia, succeeded in a test conducted at the Royal Society in London. It convinced 33 per cent of the judges that it was human, said academics at the University of Reading, which organised the test. It is thought to be the first computer to pass the iconic test. Though other programmes have claimed successes, those included set topics or questions in advance.