The Turing Test is Obsolete. AI Needs a New Benchmark
AnonTechie writes:
The Turing Test is obsolete. It's time to build a new barometer for AI
This year marks 70 years since Alan Turing published his paper introducing the concept of the Turing Test in response to the question, "Can machines think?" The test's goal was to determine if a machine can exhibit conversational behavior indistinguishable from a human. Turing predicted that by the year 2000, an average human would have less than a 70% chance of distinguishing an AI from a human in an imitation game where who is responding-a human or an AI-is hidden from the evaluator.
Why haven't we as an industry been able to achieve that goal, 20 years past that mark? I believe the goal put forth by Turing is not a useful one for AI scientists like myself to work toward. The Turing Test is fraught with limitations, some of which Turing himself debated in his seminal paper. With AI now ubiquitously integrated into our phones, cars, and homes, it's become increasingly obvious that people care much more that their interactions with machines be useful, seamless and transparent-and that the concept of machines being indistinguishable from a human is out of touch. Therefore, it is time to retire the lore that has served as an inspiration for seven decades, and set a new challenge that inspires researchers and practitioners equally.
[...] Instead of obsessing about making AIs indistinguishable from humans, our ambition should be building AIs that augment human intelligence and improve our daily lives in a way that is equitable and inclusive. A worthy underlying goal is for AIs to exhibit human-like attributes of intelligence-including common sense, self-supervision, and language proficiency-and combine machine-like efficiency such as fast searches, memory recall, and accomplishing tasks on your behalf. The end result is learning and completing a variety of tasks and adapting to novel situations, far beyond what a regular person can do.
[...] None of this is to denigrate Turing's original vision-Turing's "imitation game" was designed as a thought experiment, not as the ultimate test for useful AI. However, now is the time to dispel the Turing Test and get inspired by Alan Turing's bold vision to accelerate progress in building AIs that are designed to help humans.
[Also Covered By]: CartEgg
Do you think the Turing Test is obsolete ? If yes, what would you replace it with ?
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