[ExI] turing test, was: RE: ai class at stanford

[spike]

... On Behalf Of G. Livick
Subject: Re: [ExI] turing test, was: RE: ai class at stanford

>...Hey, I found a really large database of knowledge designed just for
computers:  http://researchcyc.cyc.com/

Thanks FutureMan.

Couple of ideas on this, but before I do I have a question for BillK or
others.  Regarding subject line filtering, in Microsloth Outlook, is there a
feature which will filter a thread, but only if the subject line is
identical to the wording of the filterbot?  For instance, is there a way to
filter "ai class at stanford" but not "RE: turing test, was: RE: ai class at
stanford"  ?

>...Shall we expect something to emerge from your development platform in
time to keep us company on those long, cold, rainy nights coming up soon?

>...With a slight tug on the leg of Spike,  FutureMan

Dunno.  Might be returning to the working world soon.  Hope springs eternal.

In the meantime, an offlist discussion has given me a hell of an idea.
About thirty years ago right when cable TV was starting, the FCC didn't
control content at all.  Since it wasn't broadcast but went over a cable a
customer had to pay for, there were no restrictions on what could be done,
so one of the early ideas was to do Candid Camera with anything goes rules.
They even exhumed Alan Funt as the host.  They did a lot of gags that
involved nudity in public places, such as a restaurant, the bank and so
forth, but the kicker was this: they would get everyone in cahoots except
for one, two, sometimes four or five people.  The other thirty or forty
people in the bank would all be in on the gag, which really was a key
element to getting the victim to do and say funny stuff.  The
naked-woman-at-the-bank-and-no-one-seems-to-notice gag really was hilarious
as all hell.  She would get in line behind some poor sap, and he would
usually freak out while everyone else in there acted like nothing was the
least bit unusual, ah well, people wake up in the morning, forget to get
dressed, etc.  Or, bowling alley, the Nudist Bowling Team having reserved
all but five lanes, they get thirty people to come in, drop the clothing all
except the bowling shoes, watch the reaction of the proles in the remaining
four lanes.  Comedy gold!

Nowthen, looks like we can do something like this with a particular person
in which every participant in the group is a chatbot except one.  This might
be used in those cases where the one person is suspected of planning a
terrorist attack for instance, and we find out she is looking around on the
internet for bomb making technology. We let the suspect participate in a
group chat with the chatbots for a while, gain confidence in them, then see
if she goes offline with any of them asking for ways to do some murderous
deed because someone from that country once drew a cartoon of Joseph Smith,
for instance.  Then we use the chatbot to send her to where she gets an
inert warhead with a tracking device in it.  Lives could be saved.

It's a natural application of the chatbot application I am envisioning: have
a particular suspect chatting with twenty chatbots simultaneously, each with
enough difference in personality that the victim doesn't know she is the
only one in the room.  Now THERES a Turing test for you.

Another challenge: see if someone can insert a chat bot into an existing
group where everyone already knows each other, and have that go unnoticed.
In the motorcycle group I mentioned before, we have archives going back
about 12 years, and there aren't that many of us who go all the way back.  I
could contact the other few who I know do go back that far, and clue them to
play along.  Then we see if all the others will fall for it, and in that
group, I think they will.  It doesn't have the ethical problems of messing
with their heads in a teen chat group: I don't see that it would hurt anyone
to insert a robo-biker.

spike