Turing Test & Chatbots (1): Article



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1. Introduction

For the second half of the day, you are going to explore the famous article Computing Machinery and Intelligence by Alan Turing (1950). This is the first, and definitely not the last, peer-reviewed article we are going to discuss in the programme. As a data professional it is important to stay up to date with new developments in the field. Furthermore, it is good to be familiar with the seminal works of AI. One way of doing so, is reviewing these scientific articles.

2. Article

The rise of artificial intelligence forces us to rethink what robots mean to society and what their role is to be. They are far better at arithmetic, but are they really as intelligent as us? What constitutes intelligence? And should we fear being replaced by these digital machines in the future? Alan Turing was the first to examine the relationship between humans and digital machines.

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Figure 1. Portrait of Alan Turing made up by binary numbers.

In the article Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950), Turing lays the foundation for modern day AI. He introduces an behavioural test, the Turing Test, and discusses some objections raised in relation to this test. As a result of his contributions to the field, he also called one of the ‘founding fathers' of AI.

2a Read the following note taking guide:

2b Besides the Turing Test, Alan Turing is renowned for his work on:
1.
2.
3.

Fill in the blanks.

Alert: Whoever has the quirkiest fact on Alan Turing will receive a candy bar at the end of the workshop in DataLab 2.

2c Read Wikipedia's summary of Computing Machinery and Intelligence by Alan Turing (1950) (required):

Did you enjoy the summary, and want to take a deeper dive into Turing's Computing Machinery and Intelligence, check out the video by Lex Fridman and/or read the original article (optional):

Note: As you might have noticed, Computing Machinery and Intelligence (Turing, 1950) does not look like your typical peer-reviewed data science or artificial intelligence article. It is missing headings such as 'Introduction', 'Experiments', and/or 'Conclusion'. A good example of a traditional artificial intelligence (i.e. computer vision) article can be found here.
  • Video: ‘Turing Test: Can Machines Think?' by Lex Fridman (See video below!)

Video 1. ‘Turing Test: Can Machines Think?' by Lex Fridman.

You will need to finish the material on Alan Turing by Friday the 10th of September. Make sure to plan wisely! During the DataLab 2, we will discuss Turing's article (and how to read these texts), and perform the Turing Test.

Tip: If you are having difficulties reading the mathematical equations or understanding the main concept of a text, try to look for additional information online. YouTube, StackOverfow, Quora, and Medium are examples of webpages that can help you in analyzing (scientific) articles.

3. Reflection and Q&A (16:00-17:00)

3a Ask question(s) related to the independent study material.

3b Choose, and provide an answer to at least of the following questions:

  1. What surprised you today, and why?
  2. What is the most important thing you learned today? Why do you think so?
  3. What do you want to learn more about, and why?
  4. When were you the most creative, and why do you think that is?
  5. What made you curious today? How does learning feel different when you are curious?
  6. When were you at your best today, and why?
  7. (Assuming we were studying the same thing and you could decide and have access to anything), where would you start tomorrow? Why?
  8. What can/should you do with what you know?
Tip: the exercise is format-free, meaning you can answer in any way or form you see suited. Make a drawing, write a piece of text, create a video, etc.

Literature

Keshav, S. (2007). How to read a paper. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 37(3), 83-84.

Turing, A. M. (2009). Computing machinery and intelligence. In Parsing the Turing test (pp. 23-65). Springer, Dordrecht.