Repair Texas
The WØRD
Although my eyes were open
They might just as well’ve been closed
The real news below.
Jun 19 2014
Jun 18 2014
Jun 17 2014
Jun 12 2014
No, A ‘Supercomputer’ Did NOT Pass The Turing Test For The First Time And Everyone Should Know Better
by Mike Masnick, TechDirt
Mon, Jun 9th 2014 7:43am
Okay, almost everything about the story is bogus. Let’s dig in:
- It’s not a “supercomputer,” it’s a chatbot. It’s a script made to mimic human conversation. There is no intelligence, artificial or not involved. It’s just a chatbot.
- Plenty of other chatbots have similarly claimed to have “passed” the Turing test in the past (often with higher ratings). Here’s a story from three years ago about another bot, Cleverbot, “passing” the Turing Test by convincing 59% of judges it was human (much higher than the 33% Eugene Goostman) claims.
- It “beat” the Turing test here by “gaming” the rules — by telling people the computer was a 13-year-old boy from Ukraine in order to mentally explain away odd responses.
- The “rules” of the Turing test always seem to change. Hell, Turing’s original test was quite different anyway.
- As Chris Dixon points out, you don’t get to run a single test with judges that you picked and declare you accomplished something. That’s just not how it’s done. If someone claimed to have created nuclear fusion or cured cancer, you’d wait for some peer review and repeat tests under other circumstances before buying it, right?
- The whole concept of the Turing Test itself is kind of a joke. While it’s fun to think about, creating a chatbot that can fool humans is not really the same thing as creating artificial intelligence. Many in the AI world look on the Turing Test as a needless distraction.
Oh, and the biggest red flag of all. The event was organized by Kevin Warwick at Reading University. If you’ve spent any time at all in the tech world, you should automatically have red flags raised around that name. Warwick is somewhat infamous for his ridiculous claims to the press, which gullible reporters repeat without question. He’s been doing it for decades. All the way back in 2000, we were writing about all the ridiculous press he got for claiming to be the world’s first “cyborg” for implanting a chip in his arm. There was even a — since taken down — Kevin Warwick Watch website that mocked and categorized all of his media appearances in which gullible reporters simply repeated all of his nutty claims. Warwick had gone quiet for a while, but back in 2010, we wrote about how his lab was getting bogus press for claiming to have “the first human infected with a computer virus.” The Register has rightly referred to Warwick as both “Captain Cyborg” and a “media strumpet” and has long been chronicling his escapades in exaggerating bogus stories about the intersection of humans and computers for many, many years.
Throwball
The real news below.
Jun 11 2014
The Amish Mafia
The Dream Team
Philip K. Howard’s 3 part Web Exclusive interview below the fold (no, it doesn’t get any better).
Jun 10 2014
Goofus & Gallant
Spore Report
You’re very handy, I can tell. I bet you like to read a lot, too.
Print is dead.
Oh, that’s very fascinating to me. I read a lot myself. Some people think I’m too intellectual but I think it’s a fabulous way to spend your spare time. I also play raquetball. Do you have any hobbies?
I collect spores, molds, and fungus.
Below the fold Chrissie Hynde x 2 including Exclusive Web Extra!
Oh, and tonight’s shows and commentary.
Jun 06 2014
Introducing Michael Che
Sherman Alexie
Gigi Ibrahim’s 3 part Web Exclusive extended interview below the fold.
Jun 05 2014
Jun 04 2014
May 23 2014
May 22 2014
Chipotle
Marian
The rest, including Jon’s 4 part extended interview with Aneesh Chopra, below the fold.