Search Search Turing Test: What is it – and why isn't it the definitive word in artificial intelligence?
 The K supercomputer in Japan.
 A computer recently passed the iconic test for the first time this weekend - but is a 64-year-old thought experiment even relevant for today's computers?
 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech The news that the Turing Test has been beaten by a computer for the first time could have significant implications for artificial intelligence – but just what is the Turing test and what does beating it actually mean?
 The test was first proposed by the British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing who, in his 1950 paper ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’, asked a simple question: ‘Can machines think?
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 If the rules he has are sophisticated enough then it would appear that he could speak Chinese – even though he has no understanding of the language.
 Most criticisms of the Turing test as a measure of artificial intelligence follow similar lines, arguing that computers can use tricks and vast databases of pre-programmed responses in order to simply ‘appear’ intelligent.
 Alan Turing, pictured at the Second World War code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park For example, in the recent successful test the computer programme claimed to be a 13-year-old boy from Ukraine – two factors that could be used to excuse any grammatical errors in the computer’s replies as well as its ignorance of more specialised forms of knowledge (pop culture and the like).
 In addition, only 33 per cent of the judges 'Eugene' spoke to had to be convinced he was a human (Turing himself never specified a pass rate) and the conversation was only five minutes long.
 For this reason (and many others) a lot of computer scientists no longer view the Turing Test as a credible way to assess artificial intelligence.
 However, that doesn't mean it's completely useless.