BOT - Turing Test sponsored by the BBC (fwd)

===================================================================== 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 ===================================================================== ---------- 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 # # # #