A Nokia N97 has become the first computerised device to pass the Turing test.
The Turing test pits a computer against a human in conversation with a human adjudicator, and the human adjudicator has to determine which the computer is, and which the human is. Some computers have managed to fool the adjudicator for several minutes but invariably end up giving themselves away after a badly worded question that the human understands with World Knowledge, but the computer doesn't. Such as "How do you file your nails?" to which a human would answer something like "I don't I bite them" whereas a computer would answer "Under 'N'".
The so called Smart Phone proved incredibly smart during the test, completely fooling the adjudicator so much so, that he never worked out which was the person, and which was the Smart Phone.
"It was incredible," said Carol Singer, the human chosen to be the adjudicator. "I spent thirty minutes on the Nokia talking with it, and it sounded and behaved just like a real person. It never once made any kind of error. Even now I can't believe I was talking to a Smart Phone."
The human, Andy de Vyce, who had been sat in the same room as Singer is a little miffed.
"I spoke ages for with Carol," he said. "I was room in the same as her, and she difference still tell couldn't. What's on going?"
Alan Turing, who invented the test, is not convinced. "I think," he said through a medium, "That Andy was pretending to be a computer, throwing Carol. I also think that the Smart Phone was actually making a phone call, and Carol was talking to a real person."
