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What is the Turing test?

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Quick answer

The Turing test is a way to judge whether a machine can think, proposed by Alan Turing in 1950. If a human judge chatting with a hidden machine can't reliably tell it apart from a human, the machine passes. A judge holds text conversations with a human and a machine, unseen.

Key things to understand

  1. A judge holds text conversations with a human and a machine, unseen.
  2. If the judge can't reliably tell which is the machine, it passes.
  3. It measures convincing behavior, not genuine understanding.
  4. Modern chatbots have reignited debate over what 'passing' really means.

People also ask

Who invented the Turing test?
Computer scientist Alan Turing proposed it in his 1950 paper 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence'.
Has any AI passed the Turing test?
Some systems have fooled judges in limited settings, but a clean, universally accepted pass is still debated.
Does passing mean a machine is conscious?
No — it only tests whether behavior seems human, not whether the machine truly understands or feels.

Part of the guide: How AI Works →