Mind vs. Machine

As we’ve learned this week, computers now outsmart humans not only in chess, but also in “Jeopardy”. Doesn’t surprise us much, does it? Where it really gets interesting is when computers can fool us into believing they are human, too. The Turing test is where scientists try to find out every once year. Examiners have five-minute chat conversations after which they have to guess whether it’s a human or a machine they were talking to. Here’s a very compelling reportage by one man the examiners were chatting with during the 2009 Turing Test, struggling to act more human than the machines along him.