Interesting read — Alan Turing: The experiment that shaped Artificial Intelligence

A few years ago, the BBC commissioned a series of essays to mark the 100th anniversary of Computer pioneer and AI theorist, Alan Turing.

University of Sheffield Professor Dr Noel Sharkey explains Turing's influence on AI research:

"Alan Turing was clearly a man ahead of his time. In 1950, at the dawn of computing, he was already grappling with the question: 'Can machines think?'

This was at a time when the first general-purpose computers had only just been built.

The term artificial intelligence had not even been coined...Yet his ideas proved both to have a profound influence over the new field of AI and to cause a schism amongst its practitioners.

The Turing Test was an adaptation of a Victorian-style competition called the imitation game.

It involves secluding a man and woman from an interrogator who has to guess which is which by asking questions and studying written replies.

The man aims to fool the interrogator, while the woman tries to help him.

In the Turing Test, a computer program replaces the man. Turing asked: '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?'"

Read the full article.

Are you ready for AI?

Take the Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals course for free when you register for Azure AI Engineer Associate, Azure Data Scientist Associate, or Implementing Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Fabric. Find out more.