Computer fools judges for first time in Turing test

'Eugene Goostman' program played 13-year-old boy

(ANSA) - Rome, June 9 - A computer program has simulated a 13-year-old boy and fooled judges at the Turing test for the first time in history. The program, named Eugene Goostman, was so convincing in its simulation of a Ukrainian tween, that judges believed it was a human boy after a five-minute chat during tests at the Royal Society of London on the weekend. "We are proud to declare that Alan Turing's test was passed for the first time", by a computer, University of Reading professor and event organizer Kevin Warwick said in a press announcement. The test was named for Second World War code-breaker Alan Turing, who designed it in 1950 during his work in early computer programming.

The British scientist invented a question-and-answer test to investigate whether or not humans could detect if they were talking to machines or fellow humans. A successful outcome would be achieved if the computer could trick at least 30% of the human judges during the five-minute keyboard conversation.

The weekend test also marked the 60th anniversary of Turing's death by suicide. Turing, considered one of the fathers of modern computing, killed himself in 1954 following prosecution and chemical treatment for homosexuality. In 2013, the British government granted him a posthumous pardon. The program from "Eugene Goostman" was created by software development engineer Vladimir Veselov and software engineer Eugene Demchenko in Saint Petersburg, Russia.