Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)

What happened

Alan Turing publishes "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" and proposes the imitation game, the first serious test for machine minds.

Why it matters

Turing replaced the vague question of whether machines can think with a test of behavior: can a machine hold a conversation that a judge cannot tell from a person? The paper also anticipated objections still heard today, and suggested building a child machine that learns, the approach modern systems follow.

Source

1. Mind, 1950

On the timeline

This event is one of 20 milestones on the RSI timeline, from 1950 to SI building SI.