The Constructability of Artificial Intelligence (as defined by the Turing Test)

Abstract

The Turing Test, as originally specified, centres on the ability to perform a social role. The TT can seen as a test of an ability to enter into normal human social dynamics. In this light it seems unlikely that such an entity can be wholly designed in an `off-line' mode, but rather a considerable period of training in situ would be required. The argument that since we can pass the TT and our cognitive processes might be implemented as a TM that, in theory, an TM that could pass the TT could be built is attacked on the grounds that not all TMs are constructable in a planned way. This observation points towards the importance of developmental processes that include random elements (e.g. evolution), but in these cases it becomes problematic to call the result artificial.