[ExI] What Does Chatbot Eugene Goostman's Success on the Turing Test Mean?

[BillK]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 7:36 PM, spike wrote:
> I donate the idea into the public domain.  If you use it, please post the
> resulting conversations.  That would be a hoot.  {8^D
>

<http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140609-how-online-bots-are-tricking-you>
Quotes:
However, what chatbots are fully capable of in everyday life is far
more interesting. We're already surrounded by bots capable of tricking
us into thinking they are real people, and they don't enter
competitions. Some are sophisticated enough to infiltrate social
networks and perhaps even influence public opinion.

There are certainly plenty of them out there. Although most people
think of the web as a place primarily frequented by humans, the
reality turns out to be quite different. A recent report found that
61.5% of internet traffic is generated by automated programs called
bots.

It's a problem known as 'astroturfing', in which a seemingly authentic
swell of grass-root opinion is in fact manufactured by a battalion of
opinionated bots. The potential for astroturfing to influence
elections has already raised concerns, with a Reuters op-ed in January
calling for a ban on candidates' use of bots in the run-up to polls.

And so the rise of bots only looks set to continue - with or without
Turing test approval. For Fritz Kunze of Pandorabots, the hope is that
people will get better at questioning innocent-looking users who
contact them online so that they're not so easily duped. But he is
also acutely aware of how hard a task that will be in the near future.

"It's going to be a big shock to most people," he says. "And these
bots are going to be really, really good - they're going to be good at
fooling people."
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BillK