UK university holds artificial intelligence test

October 13th, 2008 By RAPHAEL G. SATTER , Associated Press Writer

(AP) -- Computers argued, cracked jokes and parried trick questions, all part of an annual test of artificial intelligence carried out at the University of Reading.

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• earls - Oct 13, 2008
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  "Roberts also said Elbot tried to dominate the conversation to keep it from wandering into areas it was not properly programmed to handle."
  
  Lame. And how does cracking computer jokes help to lead to believe the computer isn't a computer?
  
  If it's not properly programmed and it doesn't have a response, or is forced to repeat itself, then it should say to the user "I'm stupid in this area, what would be the correct response?"
  
  Wouldn't the interest in learning seem more human than "yelling" at the user about what you want to talk about?
  
  I guess it is kind of inhuman to want to admit they are stupid, as illustrated by the fact that they were programmed to not appear that way by a human.
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• seversky - Oct 13, 2008
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  Elbot's breakfast joke sounds canned. If the program actually invented the joke then I really am impressed. Otherwise the contest is either flawed or it disproves Turing's theory.
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• legendsaber - Oct 14, 2008
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  As of now, all these robots can do is perform a cheap imitation of human conversation. It'll be a while before a machine can actually think in a manner similar to a human.
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