COMM 269 Assignment 4
Yusen Dai
A social Turing test: using Facebook as a platform The original Turing test addresses the problem that whether machine can communicate with human. As the artificial intelligence technology advances very quickly, and the computational power of machines is exploding, we can anticipate that in the near future machine will be able to pass Turing test. And the next question, I think will be: can machine socially interact with human? Human is intelligent and social. In social interaction we perceive most of the others by merely observation, not communication. Imagine how we observe others in parties then decide whether to make engagement. Via observation we can decide one’s intelligence, sincerity, sociality, and personality perhaps. The Facebook Turing test can be described as: Two subjects, one human and one machine, will be asked to build and maintain a Facebook presence in a given period of time. One tester will need to tell which one is the real human page. So an obvious strategy for the human subject is: trying to make friends and have social interactions with other Facebook users. For the machine, it is expected to have difficulty to formulate meaningful social interaction with people. So to beat human subject in the Facebook Turing test, the machine should convince the tester that it is a consistent human. From the wall posts, albums, groups, etc, the machine should behave consistently, using similar tones, language styles, having same interests. In other word, it should have a clear and vivid personality to pass this Turing test. If a machine can pass the Facebook Turing test, practically it can survive and live pretty well in the online community, which is just what some geeks are doing. Next step? Maybe dating with a human girl online and finally beat its human competitor?