UPDATE:
This contest is now the: AISB Loebner Prize
Visit aisb.org.uk for new contest information.
The Loebner Prize in Artificial Intelligence
"The First Turing Test"
Loebner
Prize Gold Medal
(Solid 18 carat, not gold-plated like the Olympic "Gold" medals) |
|
What is the Loebner Prize?
The Loebner Prize for artificial
intelligence ( AI ) is the first formal instantiation of
a Turing Test. The test is named after Alan Turing the
brilliant British mathematician. Among his many accomplishments was
basic research in computing science. In 1950, in the article
Computing Machinery and Intelligence which appeared in the
philosophy journal Mind, Alan Turing asked the question "Can a
Machine Think?" He answered in the affirmative, but a central
question was: "If a computer could think, how could we tell?"
Turing's suggestion was, that if the responses from the computer were
indistinguishable from that of a human,the computer could be said to
be thinking. This field is generally known as natural language
processing.
In 1990 Hugh Loebner agreed with The
Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies to underwrite a contest
designed to implement the Turing Test. Dr. Loebner pledged a Grand
Prize of $100,000 and a Gold Medal (pictured above) for the first
computer whose responses were indistinguishable from a human's. Such
a computer can be said "to think." Each year an annual cash
prize and a bronze medal is awarded to the most human-like
computer. The winner of the annual contest is the best entry relative
to other entries that year, irrespective of how good it is in an
absolute sense.
UPDATE: On 12/4/16 Hugh's wife, Elaine Loebner, announced Hugh had "died peacefully in his sleep”.
UPDATE: On 12/4/16 Hugh's wife, Elaine Loebner, announced Hugh had "died peacefully in his sleep”.
Further information on the
development of the Loebner Prize and the reasons for its existence is
available in Loebner's article In Response to the article Lessons
from a Restricted Turing Test by Stuart Shieber.
The Loebner Prize was originally made
possible by funding from Crown Industries, Inc., of East Orange NJ.
For a comprehensive overview of
chatbots in general, check chatbots.org
Your program will
interact with the Judge Program using the Loebner Prize Protocol
"LPP" via the sub folder with your program's name which is
nested within the Communications folder. The other three
folders are used during the competition, but are not necessary for
testing.
The Loebner Prize
contest, first inaugurated in 1991 at The Computer Museum (Boston,
USA), has been hosted internationally at locations such as: Carnegie
Hall (NY, USA), The Science Museum (London), The Powerhouse Museum
(Sydney, Australia), Bletchley Park (England), Dartmouth College (NH,
USA), California State University (LA, USA), University College
London, Surrey, Reading & Exeter Universities (England), Flinders
University (Adelaide, Australia) and even Hugh Loebner's appartment
in New York City (USA).
Information on the Loebner Prize
Winners of Previous Contests
1991 Joseph Weintraub
, Thinking Systems Software
1992 Joseph Weintraub,
Thinking Systems Software
1993 Joseph Weintraub,
Thinking Systems Software
1994 Thomas Whalen
1995 Joseph Weintraub,
Thinking Systems Software
1996 Jason Hutchens,
Agworld Pty Ltd
1997 David Levy,
Intelligent Research Ltd.
1998 Robby Garner
1999 Robby Garner
2000 Richard Wallace
2001 Richard Wallace
2002 Kevin Copple
2003 Juergen Pirner
2004 Richard Wallace
2005 Rollo Carpenter
2006 Rollo Carpenter
2007 Robert Medeksza
2008 Fred Roberts and
Artificial Solutions
2009 David Levy
2010 Bruce Wilcox
2011 Bruce Wilcox
2012 Mohan Embar
2013 Stephen Worswick
2014 Bruce Wilcox
2015 Stephen Worswick
2016 Stephen Worswick
2017 Stephen Worswick
Read more at:
https://web.archive.org
2015 Stephen Worswick
2016 Stephen Worswick
2017 Stephen Worswick
Read more at:
https://web.archive.org
