AI chatbot ‘passes Turing test’ that means you can’t tell it apart from human in ‘enormous step forward’, scientists say
CHATBOTS are now so advanced that humans can’t reliably tell whether they’re talking to other real people or not.
That’s the finding of scientists who say OpenAI’s artificial intelligence has successfully passed the Turing test.
This was a test – originally called the imitation game – created by renowned British mathematician Alan Turing in 1950.
It aimed to test if a computer was advanced enough to fool humans into thinking they were talking to other people during a conversation.
Now scientists at the University of California San Diego have put three computer systems to the test – and say OpenAI’s GPT-4 was clever enough to trick participants most of the time.
“Human participants had a 5 minute conversation with either a human or an AI, and judged whether or not they thought their interlocutor was human,” said Cameron Jones, of UC San Diego.
“GPT-4 was judged to be a human 54% of the time, outperforming ELIZA (22%) but lagging behind actual humans (67%).
“The results provide the first robust empirical demonstration that any artificial system passes an interactive 2-player Turing test.
“The results have implications for debates around machine intelligence and, more urgently, suggest that deception by current AI systems may go undetected.”
4, SCORE!
GPT-4 (or Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4) is a large language model created by OpenAI.
It powers the company’s ChatGPT app, allowing you to talk to a humanlike computer and ask questions, create images, and even talk using your voice.
It debuted on March 14, 2023, replacing the older and less powerful GPT-3.5 system.
Since then, OpenAI has introduced an even more powerful model called GPT-4o – and is already working on its next-gen replacement.
“Progress in artificial intelligence has led to systems that behave in strikingly humanlike ways,” Cameron explained.
“Large Language Models like GPT-4 not only produce fluent, naturalistic text, but also perform at parity with humans on a range of language-based tasks.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a new artificial intelligence tool
ChatGPT, which was launched in November 2022, was created by San Francisco-based startup OpenAI, an AI research firm.
It’s part of a new generation of AI systems.
ChatGPT is a language model that can produce text.
It can converse, generate readable text on demand and produce images and video based on what has been learned from a vast database of digital books, online writings and other media.
ChatGPT essentially works like a written dialogue between the AI system and the person asking it questions
GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer and describes the type of model that can create AI-generated content.
If you prompt it, for example ask it to “write a short poem about flowers,” it will create a chunk of text based on that request.
ChatGPT can also hold conversations and even learn from things you’ve said.
It can handle very complicated prompts and is even being used by businesses to help with work.
But note that it might not always tell you the truth.
“ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in 2022.
“These systems are increasingly being deployed to interact with people on the internet, from providing assistance as customer service agents to spreading misinformation on social media.
“As a result, people interacting anonymously online are increasingly forced to ask themselves the question: ‘Am I speaking to a human or a machine right now?'”
Scientists described it as an “enormous step forward” for AI.
FAKING IT!
The U.S. Sun has spoken to experts and written extensively about the difficulties of telling AI fakes apart from reality.
Progress in artificial intelligence has led to systems that behave in strikingly humanlike ways.
Cameron Jones
Deepfaked photos and videos are now extremely convincing – and often have very few clues that they’re fabricated.
And now AI apps can even generate convincing clones of your voice (and make you say anything) with just a few seconds of audio.
Chatbots, too, are becoming increasingly humanlike as the language models that power them get more advanced.
It’s now more important than ever to check the context of what you’re seeing or hearing, and ask yourself whether the content might be fake.
Who was Alan Turing?
Here's some facts about the genius...
Alan Turing was born on June 1912 in Maida Vale, London and from an early age it was clear that he was highly intelligent.
After graduating from Cambridge he obtained a PhD in mathematics at Princeton University in 1938.
It was at Princeton that he developed the notion of a “universal computing machine” which could solve complex calculations.
Later this would become known as the Turing machine, which foreshadowed the digital computer.
At Princeton he also studied cryptology codes and cyphers which can be used to send secret messages.
Turing was asked join the Government Codes and Cypher School, a code-breaking organisation which is now known as GCHQ.
The organisation moved to Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, which became the top secret home of Britain’s code breakers.
He was based in the famous Hut 8 and his most notable achievement at Bletchley was cracking the German’s ‘Enigma’ code.
The Enigma was a machine used by the German armed forces to send encrypted messages securely.
Turing was as awarded an OBE for his services to the country in 1945 and made deputy director of the Computing Laboratory at Manchester University.
Turing was gay at a time when homosexuality was illegal in Britain.
He was charged with gross indecency and convicted under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885.
He pleaded guilty and opted for chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones.
The scientist was rendered impotent and his security clearance was removed barring him for continuing his code breaking work for GCHQ.
Turing died two years later from cyanide poisoning in an apparent suicide – though there have been suggestions his death was an accident.
In 2013 he was officially pardoned thanks to a campaign backed by MPs and celebrities like Professor Stephen Hawking, Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch.