Passing the Turing Test
Wow, took a trip back memory lane to the Internet Archive and found my nearly 10-year-old segfault.org article, Gore’s Creator Claims Loebner Prize.
http://web.archive.org/web/20020725003233/www.segfault.org/stories/3a032731-0920f860.html
How lame am I for still finding it somewhat amusing?
By the way, “Attorney Christopher Kelly” went on to things like being Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer.
I like the formatting of the segfault archive page, but in case that disappears someday:
Gore’s Creator Claims Loebner Prize
CARTHAGE, TN – Pauline LaFon Gore today was declared the winner of the $100,000 Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence for her Turing Test-winning creation, Vice President Al Gore. A check for prize money, plus a solid gold medal were awarded in a ceremony at the home in which Mrs. Gore performed most of the design and programming work for her award-winning project.
The prize, established by Dr. Hugh Gene Loebner, has been offered since 1990, but due to the general state of the art in artificial intelligence (AI), no claims to the prize had previously been made. British mathematician Alan Turing described the Turing Test in 1950. Designed to measure a computer’s ability to think, the Turing Test requires a human judge, working from a computer terminal, to distinguish between a human respondent and a computer.
“Mrs. Gore has done amazing work,” remarked Loebner. “But I feel a little silly for saying it, because now that I know he’s a program, I can’t believe I was fooled. But that’s the point of the Turing Test!” Contest judge Lewis Kaplan said, “Looking over the transcript, I wondered why I didn’t initially notice all those nonsensical, repetitious responses. He just kept repeating ‘lock boxes’, ‘wealthiest one percent’, and stuff about inventing things and surprise fundraisers.”
Others who have spent time with the Vice President were less surprised. Attorney Christopher Kelly, who has assisted Gore with debate preparations since 1991, noted, “His AlGorithms have actually improved quite a bit in the last decade, but you know the joke – how do you tell Gore from a Secret Service agent? Gore’s the stiff-looking one.” Former rival for head of the Democratic ticket Bill Bradley said, “It explains quite a bit, actually. The weird aggressiveness of his campaign against me, the abortion and gun-control flip-flopping, and that wretched dancing.” Bradley hastened to add, “But I’m confident his current programming will make him an excellent President of the United States.”
“I’m delighted to see another acknowledgement of my lifetime of hard work, and this is an exciting time for the entire Gore family,” said the gold-medal-wearing Gore. “Although the race is looking very close, we’re all looking forward to Al being elected on Tuesday.” She continued more ominously, “Of course, if Al isn’t elected, I wouldn’t want to be held responsible. We’ve proven he can think for himself, and I’m sure most of you have seen The Matrix, so you know what happens to humans who don’t cooperate.”
Officials from the Vice President’s office and the Bush campaign refused comment. Ralph Nader remarked only, “It seems to me she could have programmed a more sensible opinion of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.”
Posted on Fri 03 Nov 13:02:38 2000 PST
Written by Michael Joseph Miller <mjm@msaddicts.com>