Definition: Turing test

The "acid test" of machine intelligence, as defined by the English scientist Alan Turing. Turing did not use the words "artificial intelligence;" however, in the 1940s, he said "I shall consider whether a machine can imitate a human so well that an intrrogator cannot tell the difference." See Dartmouth Conference and intelligence.

A computing pioneer, Turing cracked Germany's Enigma encryption in World War II, helping end the war and saving millions of lives. In 2014, The Imitation Game movie honored his achievement, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley.

In his best selling 2005 book, "The Singularity Is Near," Ray Kurzweil expressed the opinion that computers will pass the Turing test in the late 2020s. He was not optimistic enough because AI chatbots passed the test in the early 2020s. Today, it is often impossible to determine if any content was created by humans or an AI system (see technology singularity, ChatGPT and AI in a nutshell). See Turing machine, Turing Complete, Turing Award, Loebner prize, AI complete, CAPTCHA, chatbot and computer generations.

Alan Mathison Turing

After prosecution for homosexuality in 1952, Turing agreed to chemical castration by the British government in lieu of prison. In 1954 at the age of 41, a humiliated Turing took his life with cyanide poisoning. Six decades later, Queen Elizabeth granted him a posthumous pardon. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum.)