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George Kampis, Associate Professor, Chairman,
Department of History and Philosophy of Science,
ELTE University, Budapest, H-1088 Rakoczi u. 5., Hungary
Phone/FAX: (36) 1 266 4954 email: gk(a)hps.elte.hu
http://hps.elte.hu ftp://hps.elte.hu
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 12:32:01 -0600
From: FringeWare News Network <email(a)FRINGEWARE.COM>
To: PSYCHE-D(a)LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Subject: BOT - Turing Test sponsored by the BBC
Sent from: mediageist <email(a)fringeware.com>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Megalab Turing Test, 11-20 March 1998
by the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and FringeWare
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tw/megalab/megalab.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
FringeWare Open House for SXSW Interactive
and Robitron Software Research Demo
14 March 1998, 11am-2pm
2716 Guadalupe, Austin, Texas
+1 512 494 9273
Austin, Texas (9 March 1998) -- The BBC, the UK's Daily Telegraph
newspaper, and FringeWare will be conducting a Turing Test, i.e. an
evaluation of artificial intelligence technology, as part of BBC TV's
Tomorrow's World program and the Electronic Telegraph forum, with the
online test hosted by FringeWare. The event is included in part of the
Megalab '98 project -- billed as as "Britain's Biggest Experiment" --
and coinciding with the SXSW Interactive Festival held in Austin.
In the past few years, intelligent agents known as "chat bots" have
come into use on the Internet. International competitions are held
regularly to examine how well these robots can convince conversants of
their "humanity", through text-based conversations. Alan Turing, the
father of computing, first proposed such an experiment, hence the name
"Turing Test" honors his invention.
AI software agents participating in this test include "Barry DeFacto"
(written by Robby Glen Garner of Robitron Software Research and
Paco Xander Nathan of FringeWare) and "ALICE" (written by Dr. Richard
S. Wallace of Eastport Internet Associates). The test will also include
human "confederates" posing as robots/conversants.
Participation is open to the public, via the Internet, and viewers
will be asked to cast votes, after their conversations, to judge the
robots and confederates.
Look for coverage of this event in the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper
and web site, and in the BBC TV's Tomorrow's World broadcasts on 12 Mar
and 20 Mar. Please see the BBC web site for more details.
FringeWare will also be participating in the SXSW Interactive Festival
during this course of this Turing Test. A special "inside view" of
intelligent agent technology will be open to the public during
FringeWare's SXSW Open House, on 14 March, from 11am-2pm, at:
FringeWare
2716 Guadalupe (next to Mojo's on The Drag)
Austin TX 78705
+1 512 494 9273
http://www.fringeware.com/shop/
There will be a rare public showing of the "Albert One" software,
written by Robby Glen Garner, which took first place in this year's
Loebner Prize. Also, Paco Xander Nathan and others will be onhand to
discuss intelligent agent technology at the "wine & cheese" open house
reception.
This event previews the "Turing Test 1998" festival, being held in
Austin on 23 June 1998 and celebrating Alan Turing's birthday, as part
of the Forbin Project for cooperative development and evaluation of
intelligent agents via the Internet. Network services and consulting
for both events are being provided by Smallworks, Inc., of Austin,
Texas.
Several members of FringeWare staff will be speaking on related media
topics at the SXSW Interactive conference, and FringeWare will have a
public booth at the trade show. A limited number of guest passes for
the SXSW Interactive trade show are available at the FringeWare store,
on a first-come, first-serve basis.
For additional information, please see these web sites -
BBC Tomorrow's World
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tw/vertigo/
Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
FringeWare, Inc.
http://www.fringeware.com/
Robitron Software Research
http://www.fringeware.com/~robitron/
Eastport Interactive Associates
http://w3.ime.net/~rsw/
Smallworks, Inc.
http:/www.smallworks.com/
Forbin Project
http://birch.eecs.lehigh.edu/alice/forbin.html
SXSW Interactive
14-17 March 1998
Austin, Texas
http://www.sxsw.com/
Turing Test Festival
23 June 1998
Austin, Texas
http://www.fringeware.com/bot/turing.html
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