Computer scientist here. This is a publicity stunt, and not really taken seriously within the computing world.
The software for this event was actually written in 2001, and mimics similar tricks developed 50 years ago (see MIT's Eliza project. Also, the administrators of the test claimed the computer was a 13 year old, non-native-English speaker, and from a foreign country, so that mistakes answering cultural or geographical topics are easily explained. It's worth noting that this event was announced via a press release from the University of Reading, not a published academic paper.
IBM's Watson (Jeopardy) is an infinitely more remarkable achievement in artificial intelligence, and still deserves our attention more than stunts like this. (e.g. IBM is now applying Watson to serious subjects, including medical diagnosis.)
Computer scientist here. This is a publicity stunt, and not really taken seriously within the computing world.
ReplyDeleteThe software for this event was actually written in 2001, and mimics similar tricks developed 50 years ago (see MIT's Eliza project. Also, the administrators of the test claimed the computer was a 13 year old, non-native-English speaker, and from a foreign country, so that mistakes answering cultural or geographical topics are easily explained. It's worth noting that this event was announced via a press release from the University of Reading, not a published academic paper.
IBM's Watson (Jeopardy) is an infinitely more remarkable achievement in artificial intelligence, and still deserves our attention more than stunts like this. (e.g. IBM is now applying Watson to serious subjects, including medical diagnosis.)