“The Loebner Prize for artificial intelligence ( AI ) is the first formal instantiation of a Turing Test. The test is named after Alan Turing the brilliant British mathematician. Among his many accomplishments was basic research in computing science. In 1950, [...] Alan Turing asked the question “Can a Machine Think?” He answered in the affirmative, but a central question was: “If a computer could think, how could we tell?” Turing’s suggestion was, that if the responses from the computer were indistinguishable from that of a human, the computer could be said to be thinking. [...]
In 1990 Hugh Loebner agreed with The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies to underwrite a contest designed to implement the Turing Test.”
[From Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence]
This summer I was involved as a preliminary phase judge (Loebner Prize 2008) and enjoyed testing some of the systems. I am not entirely sure about the value of the test itself, but I am sure that these kinds of contests help improving interactiveness of software systems.
Categories: English · Explanation
I’m a fan of electronic music since I started consciously listening to music somewhere around 1981. One of my first CDs back in 1985—as a quick look at my iTunes playlists revealed—was a Jean-Michel Jarre compilation with samples from Oxygène, Equinoxe, Magnetic fields, etc. (»Musik aus Zeit und Raum»). Over the years I found a piece of electronic music here and there, but never really kept track of what was going on. As I now know I should have just asked my friend Stefan Schulz about it. Since last September he publishes a weekly podcast on “fine electronic music”. On a 9 hours train ride two days ago I finally had the opportunity to hear all 10 episodes of 30 minutes each in one long rush. What a great way to spend one’s time: the world passing by outside the train window while listening to “electronic music of ambient, space, new age, experimental, and rhythmic style”.
Go to his website and listen for yourself: syndae.de.
Categories: English · Music
The German Informatics Society GI (Gesellschaft für Informatik e. V.) has its own publication series, the Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI). As I learned yesterday at its constitutive meeting of the new editorial board, this series was set up for mainly German conference proceedings, but it has gained momentum and offers also interesting terms and conditions for international conferences. I am quite happy and proud to be now a member of this editorial board for its current term (September 2008 – September 2011), as representative of the GI Artificial Intelligence special interest group (Fachbereich Künstliche Intelligenz).
Categories: English · Miscellaneous
