I'm Sorry Dave, I Can't Do That

Gizmodo says “this is big” and they ain’t kidding:

A computer has successfully managed to fool a bunch of researchers into thinking that it was a 13-year-old boy named Eugene Goostman. In doing so, it has become the first computer in the world to have successfully passed the Turing Test.

The test is named after computer pioneer Alan Turing. To pass it, a computer needs to dupe 30 per cent of human judges in five minute text-based chats, a feat that until now had never been accomplished.

“Eugene” was created by a team based in Russia, and passed the test organised by the University of Reading just barely, by duping 33 per cent of the judges. It should also be noted that successfully pretending to be a 13-year-old boy for whom English is a second language ain’t exactly Hal 9000.

It’s still an obviously exciting breakthrough, though, one that has critics already raising red flags about its implications. “Having a computer that can trick a human into thinking that someone, or even something, is a person we trust is a wake-up call to cyber crime,” said Kevin Warwick, a visiting professor at the University of Reading and deputy vice-chancellor for research at Coventry University told the Independent.

Aren’t we supposed to be just a decade away, give or take, from the Singularity?