By Chanyeong Park
We live in a modern world where Artificial Intelligence(AI) permeates our daily lives. Siri, Instagram video filters, and even your lovely Netflix recommendation systems are used in our lives. Generally, when people think about AI, they believe it can actually “think.” But do they really? Let’s figure that out.
To begin with, we should start with definitions of the meaning of the terms ‘machine’ and ‘think’.The definitions might be framed so as to reflect as far as possible the normal use of the words, but this attitude is problematic. Think about it, if the meaning of the words ‘machine’ and ‘think’ are to be found by examining how they are commonly used, then it is no more than a statistical survey on the frequency of the words, which is absurd. To address this issue, Alan Turing, a highly influential figure in the field of theoretical Computer Science, came up with a test to examine a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to humans: The Turing Test, A.K.A “The Imitation Game.”
Imagine a simple party game involving three players. Player A is a man, player B is a woman, and player C (who plays the role of the interrogator) is of either sex. In the imitation game, player C cannot see either player A or player B and can communicate with them only through written notes. By asking questions of player A and player B, player C tries to determine which of the two is the man and which is the woman. Player A's role is to trick the interrogator into making the wrong decision, while player B attempts to assist the interrogator in making the right one.
Turing then asks: "What will happen when a machine takes part in A in this game? Will the interrogator decide wrongly as often when the game is played like this as he does when the game is played between a man and a woman?" These questions are essentially equivalent to the question in the introduction, "Can machines think?”
References
Turing, A. M. (1950, October). COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE. Academic.oup.com. Retrieved November 19, 2022, from https://academic.oup.com/mind/article/LIX/236/433/986238
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