The "acid test" of true artificial intelligence, as defined by the English scientist Alan Turing. In the 1940s, he said "a machine has artificial intelligence when there is no discernible difference between the conversation generated by the machine and that of an intelligent person."
In his best selling book, "The Singularity Is Near," Ray Kurzweil expressed the opinion that computers will pass the Turing test in the late 2020s. See CAPTCHA.
One of the pioneers in computing, Turing helped fellow scientists break Germany's Enigma encryption code in World War II. In 1954, barely reaching the age of 42, Turing died of a self-administered dose of potassium cyanide, the motivation for which was unclear. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org)
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