Geekend: Replacing the Turing Test - InformationWeek

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Comments
Geekend: Replacing the Turing Test
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David Wagner
50%
50%
David Wagner,
 User Rank: Strategist
11/30/2014 | 2:51:31 PM
Re: Innovative
@kstaron- I'm not so sure a "leap" of logic is necessary. I think our leaps are usually just looking at something from a new angle. Just stargiht asking the right questions. 

What it seems like you are describing to me is genius. That seems like a high bar. 

I think i'd settle for making the right decision when asked a question or asked to a task the vast majority of the time. That would beat the crap out of most humans. 

But I do think you're on to one thing-- a "leap" of logic implies being able to do a broad range of things. You can't leap if your are specialized. 
David Wagner
100%
0%
David Wagner,
 User Rank: Strategist
11/30/2014 | 2:44:22 PM
Re: Replacing the Turing Test
@zerox203- Thanks. One thing that current robots remind me of is the old proverb where blind men touch an elephant and one touches the tail and sais, "Oh, a snake." And another touches the leg and says, "oh a tree." We've got robots that do a lot of single things well. One day someone is going to combine them into an elephant and we're going to be blown away.
David Wagner
50%
50%
David Wagner,
 User Rank: Strategist
11/30/2014 | 2:40:32 PM
Re: Write an IW blog?
@tzubair- Writing a blog as good as mine are isn't much of a feat. But as good as the rest of the IWeek crew, that's an achievement. 

But here's the interesting part. We've got computers that can write in ways that look rather human. The hard part, I think, would be creating the computer that could gather the pertinent information and research first. i suspect Watson could be trained to fake it at this point with some specific topics. 

But you are right. I'd like to think good writing is one of the last places humans will triumph over computers.
impactnow
50%
50%
impactnow,
 User Rank: Author
11/25/2014 | 12:38:02 PM
Intelligence versus judgments
Dave LOL, you're absolutely right intelligence is much deeper than programming can address today . Our definition of artificial intelligence today works great with binary decisions . However, since so many decisions are not binary nature artificial intelligence often fails . When ethics and judgments are factored in, the decision becomes even more complex. We may get there eventually but I don't think it's coming anytime soon . In the interim I loved your tests!
David Wagner
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0%
David Wagner,
 User Rank: Strategist
11/24/2014 | 1:35:39 PM
Re: Futurama
@TerryB- Are we light years away? Google claims they will be going into production in 2018 on a self-driving car. That seems like some sort of serious intelligence to me. Not necessarily human-like but intelligent. We've got machines in assembly lines making split second sophisticated decisions. All of this adds up to something. 

We're probably decades or more from making a Data-like robot that emulates human behavior in all ways. But we're getting to something fairly soon we might need to start calling intelligent aren't we?
David Wagner
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0%
David Wagner,
 User Rank: Strategist
11/24/2014 | 1:26:51 PM
Re: Turing, Tracy and Hepburn
@jastroff- True enough about how some visionaries nail it. I stand corrected.

It is interesting you bring up "being observant" as I feel like that is a growing strength of computers. One thing that always bugged me about Data in Star Trek is that he couldn't see behind himself. I get the idea that he was artificial life, but would you have put sensors in places other than his eyes? 

The great thing about computers/robots is that they should be able to see more than we do. We can put "eyes" and "ears" all over them. 
David Wagner
100%
0%
David Wagner,
 User Rank: Strategist
11/24/2014 | 12:57:42 PM
Re: Turing test, a worth persuit?
@Pedro- I agree with you that Deep Blue winning at chess doesn't make it smart. And even Watson winning at Jeopardy doesn't make it intelligent.

But let's face it, computers are getting smarter. We are tasking them with making more interesting and more complicated decisions on our behalf. Don't we need to be able to test computers as they get smarter so we know exactly how much we can trust them with? And what we can trust them to do?


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