Program fools humans

Have you ever been so bored that you started a conversation with a “chatbot (聊天机器人)”? You probably discovered quickly that it wasn't much fun, because the things it says hardly ever make any sense and chatting with it doesn't provide the same kind of back-and-forth as a human conversation.

That might have made you wonder: will a computer ever be able to talk like a human?

That day is certainly getting closer now. A computer program named “Eugene Goostman” has successfully passed the Turing test – by fooling people into thinking it was a 13-year-old boy, reported AFP on June 9.

While you may have never heard of the Turing test, it means a lot in the world of artificial (人工的) intelligence.

According to USA Today, the test was first invented in 1950 by Alan Turing, a British computer expert best known for his code-breaking work during World War II. In his test, a group of human judges take turns having keyboard conversations for five minutes with two subjects – a human and a piece of computer software. If up to 30 percent of the judges fail to tell the two apart, the program is considered to have passed the test.

“If a machine is indistinguishable (无法区分的) from a human, then it could be said to be ‘thinking’,” wrote Turing in his paper Computing, Machinery & Intelligence back in 1950.

No computer had ever passed the Turing test before. But this time, Eugene Goostman, developed by two Russian scientists to simulate (模拟) a 13-year-old boy, managed to convince 33 percent of judges that it was human.

Machines are close to “reaching the milestone of communicating with us in a way that we are comfortable with”, Professor Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading, UK, told The Telegraph. “This brings closer the time in which robots start to play an active role in our daily lives.”

Some people feel a bit disturbed by the news. They worry that computers will outsmart humans in the near future and take over the world. But Warwick said that it is unlikely that this will happen any time soon. After all, computers have only just learned to have a five-minute conversation, while we humans can do so much more than that.

Humans have been keeping animals as pets for tens of thousands of years, but Dr. Jean-Loup Rault, an animal scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, believes new companions are coming: robot pets.

“Technology is moving very fast,” Rault told ABC News, “The Tamagotchi in the early 1990s was really the first robotic pet, and now Sony and other big companies have improved them a lot.”

This may not sit well with pet lovers. After all, who would choose a plastic toy over a lovely puppy? But Rault argues that the robotic kind has a lot going for it: “You don’t have to feed it, you don’t have to walk it, it won’t make a mess in your house, and you can go on a holiday without feeling guilty.” The technology also benefits those who are allergic to pets, short on space, or fearful of real animals.

It’s not clear whether robot pets can replace real ones. But studies do suggest that we can bond with these smart machines. People give their cars names and kids give their toy animals life stories. It’s the same with robots. When Sony stopped its repair service for its robot dog Aibo in March 2014, owners in Japan held funerals.

As an animal welfare researcher, Rault is concerned about how robotic pets could affect our attitudes towards live animals. “If we become used to a robotic companion that doesn’t need food, water or exercises, perhaps it will change how humans care about other living beings,” he said.

So are dogs and cats a thing of the past, as Rault predicts? For those who grew up with living and breathing pets, the mechanical kind might not do. But for our next generation who are in constant touch with smart technology, a future in which lovely pets needn’t have a heartbeat might not be a far-fetched dream.

The human beings seem to be facing a crisis （危机）． After our best Go players were defeated one by one by the artificial intelligence （AI） AlphaGo， we lost our pride of being at the top of the intelligence chain． And in October， when Saudi Arabia gave citizenship to a robot named Sophia， another privilege of being human was taken away． It looks like everything that separates humans and AI is at risk fight now．

But we keep hoping that instead of "everything"， there's still something left in us that makes us irreplaceable．

To Hao Jingfang， winner of the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novelette， that "something" is our consciousness． "AlphaGo is intelligent in a certain way， but not intelligent enough to ask the important questions -- Do I like playing Go？ Do I want to play Go today？ Why do I have to play Go when you tell me to？" she once said． In other words， computer programs don't have a choice to say "no"． They probably don't even know what a "choice" is -- all they ever do is calculate．

And to He Huaihong， a philosophy （哲学） professor at Peking University， imagination and creativity are also what make us special． "A machine couldn't have come up with the theory of gravity just because it was hit by a falling apple"， he said． "It's human imagination that connects what seem to be completely random and irrelevant concepts， something that a machine--which works by fixed rules only--can't do， at least for now．"

This is why BBC reporter Viktor Mayer-Schonberger suggested that instead of focusing on how computers have overshadowed us on calculating abilities than humans， we should probably "consider our quality at a different end of the spectrum （光谱）：creativity， originality （原创性）， even plain illogical craziness， instead of hard-nosed （顽固的） logic"， he wrote．

So maybe in the future， as artificial intelligence becomes even more intelligent， humans and A1will learn to use each other's talents for good． If AI can handle the boring tasks like calculating and driving for us， we'll have more time to create， think， and be busy with "being human"．