Software developers are rapidly trying to mimic and develop artificial forms of intelligence that appear similar to human forms. The benchmark for success in these endeavors is the Turing Test. This is a simple test where you ask a machine and a human similar questions. If you can’t tell the difference between the computer’s response and the human’s, the Creator of the machine is said to have achieved artificial intelligence.
There are a lot of recent attempts at this on the web that you can check out. These “machines” are called “chatterbots”, or just “bots”. Go here http://web.infoave.net/~kbcowart/. To talk with a bot: first click on one of the names on the left (blue hotlinks), that takes you to a summary page of the bot -- click on the "website" link at the top to get to the actual bot page. You should then find a link to start talking. Alice is always a good one to start with. Have some conversations with a few of them. Find your favorites and answer the following questions. Give rationales for each answer. Make sure and finish this by Wed. night.
What Q&A exchange was most humanlike?
What Q&A exchange revealed the inadequacies (in human terms) of the bot?
What was the most interesting exchange?
Would these bots pass the Touring Test?
Post your answers here on the blog.