Leeds-based Designer to Push AI

A Leeds-based designer will attempt to push the boundaries of technology behind artificial intelligence (AI).

16:27 16 September 2019

This weekend, Leeds-based designer Steve Worswick will attempt to push the boundaries of technology behind artificial intelligence by trying to convince a panel of judges that they are chatting to another person while really they are talking to a chatbot.

 

Worswick will participate in the Loebner Prize, which is one of the only real-world turing tests in the highly-hyped world of artificial intelligence.

 

The competition sees four judges conducting a series of conversations with both humans and bots which they then score out of 100.

 

Each both will be asked the same 20 questions of varying degrees of complexity. The questions will be answered by a chatbot and a human at the same time and the judges will decide which is which. The conversations are 25 minutes long and the machine will win if it fools at least half the judges.

 

"It usually becomes apparent after the first few questions which is the bot," said Mr Worswick, who has 'won' four times.

 

The Loebner Prize, which was launched in 1991, has had a numerous partners, ranging from Cambridge Center for Behavioural Studies to the Science Museum and The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) but it has failed to attract bigger players or those studying in the field.

 

Noel Sharkey, computer scientist at Sheffield University and two-times judge at the event, is baffled as to why it has always been so low-key.

 

"I am a little surprised, given the number of chatbots we are all experiencing in online customer services, that this is not a much bigger affair," he said.

 

"It might be that the big tech companies don't like the idea of independent objective evaluation or maybe they are a bit worried about competing with one another."