Editing 329: Turing Test

{{comic
| number    = 329
| date      = October 15, 2007
| title     = Turing Test
| image     = turing_test.png
| titletext = Hit Turing right in the test-ees
}}

==Explanation==
In brief, a {{w|Turing test}} is a test for assessing whether a machine/program demonstrates "intelligent" behaviour. Suggested by {{w|Alan Turing}}, the test involves a human examiner talking through a computer terminal to either a human or a computer — which it is, is not known to the examiner. If the machine/program's responses convince the examiner that they are talking to a human, the machine/program is said to be passing the test. This comic suggests that extra credit should be awarded if the machine/program is capable of "counter-convincing" the examiner that they're actually a computer.

The most common implementation of a Turing test Internet users may see is the {{w|CAPTCHA}} (Completely Automated Program to Tell Computers and Humans Apart), which is often found on web site registration pages and usually involves trying to identify letters/numbers in an image. The text in the image is often distorted and/or in different colors or sizes or fonts, or may be very blurry as if from a very bad photocopy. This is to deter an automated {{w|Optical character recognition|OCR}} (Optical Character Recognition) program from easily identifying the characters. The idea is that humans can process and decipher things from highly distorted pictures much easier than (current) computer algorithms can.

The caption makes a play on words, in that ''extra credit'' (optional additional work to perform) is sometimes offered on curricular examinations ("tests") to allow the taker to increase their total score by demonstrating a heightened understanding of the subject, but the Turing test is not such a test. (This misapplication of vernacular associated with academic testing to a non-academic procedure that also bears the name ''test'' is a common vehicle of humor, as in "what if I take a blood test, and don't pass?" One may pass or fail an academic exam, but a blood test only identifies blood type, and the concept of passing or failing is not applicable.)

Similarly, the title text makes a play on words with "test-ees" vs ''testes'' suggesting that such extra credit would be an ironic twist to Turing test. (Hitting or kicking an adversary in the testes is considered dirty fighting.) This play on words is actually itself a form of aural CAPTCHA; humans can processes and recognize {{w|pun}}s for what they are, but machines generally run afoul of the ambiguity. (Unless Randall trained them for it as in [[1696: AI Research]].)

A person with an appreciation for macabre humor will note that actually hitting Alan Turing in the testes would be rendered somewhat ineffectual by the fact that the British government {{w|Alan Turing#Conviction for indecency|chemically castrated him}} after he was convicted of "gross indecency" (Victorian-era code for "homosexuality") under the Labouchere Amendment in 1952. Whether or not this was intended by Randall is uncertain.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball typing at a desk with two computers; there is a caption above him.]
:Turing test extra credit:
:Convince the examiner that <u>he's</u> a computer.
:Cueball: You know, you make some really good points.
:Cueball: I'm... not even sure who I am anymore.

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]