fass@fornax.UUCP (Dan Fass) (07/11/90)
The following is excerpted from a Media Release dated May 31 1990: ______________ The Loebner Prize will be awarded annually for the computer program that best emulates natural human behaviour. The prize, based on a fund established by New York businessman Hugh G. Loebner expected to exceed $100,000, will be administered by the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts. There will be an annual contest in which a panel of ``independent judges will attempt to determine whether responses on a computer terminal are being produced by a computer or by a person,'' along the lines of Alan Turing's famous Turing Test. The panel of judges includes Daniel Dennett, W. V. Quine, and Joseph Weizenbaum. Allen Newell is an advisor. The designers of the best program each year will receive a cash award and a medal. If a program should pass the test ``in all its particulars'' then the entire fund will be paid to the program designer and the fund abolished. The first annual competition will be held in Cambridge, MA in the fall of 1991. Entrants may select their own topic areas but they must be within the experience of ordinary people. ``Programs should be able to hold conversations of a type that might occur between people meeting for the first time. For example, a conversation might be about the weather, or about grocery shopping, or about personal health.'' Expert programs -- for example, one that simulates a therapist and requires judges to act as patients -- will likely be evaluated negatively. Programs must communicate in natural American English. The deadline for submissions is May 31 1991. For further information about the Loebner Prize contact Dr. Robert Epstein Executive Director Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies 11 Waterhouse Street Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. (617) 491 9020 ______________ Dan Fass fass@cs.sfu.ca