It is more unnerving, not more reassuring, to be phoned by a robot that is nearly human than it is to be phoned by an obvious machine. Artificial intelligence failed to convince a panel of people that they were also human at the annual Turing test, named after Alan Turing, creator of the first computer. One of the testers, author David Boyle, noted that the AIs failed to understand jokes. Though one of the robots told a joke, when asked why it was funny, the AI lacked an answer. The test is designed to see if machines can be taught how to use language and reasoning in order to make sense out of what humans say. Boyle’s theory is that the fallibility of humanity is what makes us human, and the robots’ inability to grasp this is why “thinking robots” will not be produced any time soon.
Artificial intelligence failed to convince a panel of people that they were also human at the annual Turing test, named after Alan Turing, creator of the first computer. One of the testers, author David Boyle, noted that the AIs failed to understand jokes. Though one of the robots told a joke, when asked why it was funny, the AI lacked an answer. The test is designed to see if machines can be taught how to use language and reasoning in order to make sense out of what humans say. Boyle’s theory is that the fallibility of humanity is what makes us human, and the robots’ inability to grasp this is why “thinking robots” will not be produced any time soon.