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ALMOST HUMAN
Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film A.I. is the story of David, a robot – boy who can think and feel like a human.  The film is set in the distant future, but the idea is not as farfetched as it may seem at first.  Today scientists are developing computers that are capable of interacting and communicating with humans.

It all started in 1950 when the British mathematician Alan Turing,who had famously helped to break German military codes during the Second World War, asked how scientists would know whether computers had successfully achieved truly artificial intelligence.  His suggestion was that, in order for a computer to be described a truly intelligent, it had to give replies in a conversation which could not be distinguished from a human’s replies.

New Yorker Hugh Loebnerwas fascinated by the idea of artificial intelligence, and in early1990s offered $100,000 to the first program to pass the “Turning Test”, that is, to successfully fool a panel of judges into thinking it was a real person.  That challenge has turned into an annual competition, but despite 16 years of trying, no technology has made that breakthrough, and the grand prize remains unclaimed.However, every year the judges award a prize to the computer program that comes closest to passing the test, and in 2006 the lucky winner was Joan.  She is just a few years old but is already very talkative.  Joan’s maker, the British entrepreneur Rollo Carpenter, emerged victorious after a day of intense competition as quartet of software experts and their creations battled it out in a blind test heldat University College in London.  The judges held typed competitions – similar to an Internet chat program- with all four of the challengers, before they declared Joan the word’s most human computer program.
The victory earned Carpenter a $2,000 prize and a bronze metal- and also helped him retain the title he first won last year for the first time with a computer program called George.  Both Joanand George are based in technology that Carpenter has named “Jabberwacky”.  What’s unusual about Jabberwacky is that it uses its experience of interaction with humans to create a store from which to draw its next response.  The Jabberwacky system has entered the competition every year since 2003, and now seems to be building up an impressive lead over its rivals.  That may be helped by the factthat it is always able to enlarge its database through conversations online.

“I’m very pleased” said Carpenter.  “In a very subjective test… but I believe that for practical purposes, people will believe Joan is a human.”

Carpenter has already identified a possible role for computers like Joan.  He is working with call center companies to help train his robots to understand how better tointeract with humans, with the possibility of using them to replace human workers in the near future –a prospect that fills many people with horror.
However, experts say that a program that will successfully pass the Turning test and scoop the $100,000 prize is still some years away.  “We’re still a long way off, but I think Rollo Carpenter in onto something, ‘said Duncan Graham – Rowe, one of thejudges.  Carpenter is not put off, being used to the long haul.  The very first version of the program was written in 1982, and ran on Sinclair ZX81, a primitive home computer which had a maximum of 16K of RAM!
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According to Alan Turing, what would a computer that could think for itself be able to do?
Select one:
a. Winthe Hugh Loebner competition
b. Answer questions
c. Break military codes
d. Take part in a conversation with you and make you think it was human
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According to the text, what is unusual about the technology behind Joan?
Select one:
a. Its name “Jabbberwacky”.
b. It’s much better than its rivals.
c. Its store of...