Consider the following online chat:
Chat Transcript 08/16/2011 04:33 PM
[04:08:02 PM] Hi, my name is Teresa. Thank you for visiting the Men's Wearhouse. How may I assist you?
[04:08:41 PM] Don: Hi. I have a question about your guarantee.
[04:08:52 PM] Teresa: I'll be happy to assist you with that, Don.
[04:10:15 PM] Don: Last year I bought two suits from your separates line. One of the jackets just does not fit comfortably. I have had it altered three times. There is something not quite right about the jacket. The other suit jacket [same size] fits well and needed no alteration.
[04:10:26 PM] Don: What are my options?
[04:11:31 PM] Don: Also, am I chatting with a computer or real person?
[04:11:44 PM] Teresa: I recommend that you take the jacket to the tailor again and have them examine it to see if it can be altered properly or if there is a defect. Since you've altered the seams before, you will not be charged for the service again.
[04:12:08 PM] Teresa: This is a live person.
A program passes the Turing Test if it exhibits intelligent behavior and its performance is indistinguishable from a human. In the original Turing Test a person engages in a text only conversation with another participant. If a judge cannot determine which responses are machine and which are human, the machine has passed the test. [reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test]
In this example we will look at a rock, paper, scissors game. [see link below]
First try the novice game. Play at least 20 rounds.
How realistic is the game?
Does the computer’s ability change after 5 rounds? 10 rounds? 20 rounds?
After playing at least 10 games click the button to See What The Computer Is Thinking. Explain how the computer is able to successfully play the game?
Note: A truly random game of rock-paper-scissors would result in a statistical tie with each player winning, tying and losing one-third of the time. However, people are not truly random and thus can be studied and analyzed. While this computer won't win all rounds, over time it can exploit a person's tendencies and patterns to gain an advantage over its opponent.
Who won?
Now try the Veteran Game.
How realistic is the game?
Is there a notable change change in the computer’s abilty after 10 rounds? 20 rounds? 50 rounds?
After playing at least 20 games click the button to See What The Computer Is Thinking. Explain how the computer is able to successfully play the game?
Who won?
The original Turing test is a person checking to see if it id talking to a computer. Can you think of any occasions that a computer might want to know if it is talking to another computer or a real life person?
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/science/rock-paper-scissors.html
[Written by Don Yanek for the October 10/22/2011 ECS training in Chicago]