I’m not saying that Watson could pass, or almost pass a Turing test. I’m saying that Watson demonstrated a combination of great quasi-linguistic skill and great general incompetence that I wasn’t expecting to be possible. It proved that a computer could be “taught to the test” in at least some areas.
So I think we should keep open the possibility that a computer could be taught to the Turing test as well.
Well, yes, if you make the test non-adaptive, it’s (exponentially) easier to pass. For example, if you limit the “conversation” to a game of chess, it’s already possible. But those aren’t the “full” Turing Test; they’re domain-specific variants. Your criticism would only apply to the latter.
Are AI players actually indistinguishable from humans in Chess? Could an interrogator not pick out consistent stylistic differences between equally-ranked human and AI players?
I’m not saying that Watson could pass, or almost pass a Turing test. I’m saying that Watson demonstrated a combination of great quasi-linguistic skill and great general incompetence that I wasn’t expecting to be possible. It proved that a computer could be “taught to the test” in at least some areas.
So I think we should keep open the possibility that a computer could be taught to the Turing test as well.
Well, yes, if you make the test non-adaptive, it’s (exponentially) easier to pass. For example, if you limit the “conversation” to a game of chess, it’s already possible. But those aren’t the “full” Turing Test; they’re domain-specific variants. Your criticism would only apply to the latter.
Are AI players actually indistinguishable from humans in Chess? Could an interrogator not pick out consistent stylistic differences between equally-ranked human and AI players?