[net.ai] Turing Test; Parry, Eliza, and Flamer

JAY%USC-ECLC@sri-unix.UUCP (08/17/83)

From:  Jay <JAY@USC-ECLC>

Parry and Eliza are fairly famous early AI projects.  One acts
paranoid, another acts like an interested analyst.  How about reviving
the project and challenging the Turing test?  Flamer is born.

Flamer would read messages from the net and then reply to the 
sender/bboard denying all the person said, insulting him, and in 
general making unsupported statements.  I suggest some researchers out
there make such a program and put it on the net.  The goal would be 
for the readers of the net try to detect the Flamer, and for Flamer to
escape detection.  If the Flamer is not discovered, then it could be 
considered to have passed the Turing test.

Flamer has the advantage of being able to take a few days in 
formulating a reply; it could consult many related online sources, it
could request information concerning the subject from experts (human,
or otherwise), it could perform statistical analysis of other flames
to make appropriate word choices, it could make common errors 
(gramical, syntactical, or styleistical), and it could perform other 
complex computations.

Perhaps Flamer is already out there, and perhaps this message is 
generated by such a program.

j'

JAY@USC-ECLC@sri-unix.UUCP (08/26/83)

From:  Jay <JAY@USC-ECLC>

Is this a human response??

j'
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  Subject:  Re:  Turing Test; Parry, Eliza, and Flamer
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        From: JAY%USC-ECLC@sri-unix.UUCP

        . . . Flamer would read messages from the net and then
        reply to the sender/bboard denying all the person said,
        insulting him, and in general making unsupported statements.
        . . .

  Boy! Now that's the dumbest idea I've heard in a long time. Only an
  idiot such as yourself, who must be totally out of touch with reality,
  could come up with that. Besides, what would it prove?  It's not much
  of an accomplishment to have a program which is stupider than a human.
  The point of the Turing test is to demonstrate a program that is as
  intelligent as a human. If you can't come up with anything better,
  stay off the net!