The Most Human Human, Discusses Turing Test on Daily Show

Christian talks with Stewart about what separates humanity from its human-like machines.

How human are you? It's a question that strikes me as both absurd and deeply important. Brian Christian probably would agree. He was one of the humans used to evaluate if computers can fake out humans in pretending to be real people. In 2009, Christian participated in the Loebner Prize, an annual competition for the Turing Test. Judges had short, five minute conversations via chat with Christian and his fellow human confederates, along with several chatbots - computers that have been taught to type messages so they would sound like a person. The chatbot that fools the most judges is deemed the Most Human Computer, while the human that is recognized as such most often is deemed the Most Human Human. It was a title Christian felt he simply had to win. His book on the subject, The Most Human Human, is now in stores, and the young author recently visited Jon Stewart on The Daily Show to discuss his experiences. Watch his interview in the video below.

This brief and funny conversation between Christian and Stewart is a good introduction to the Turing Test, and an even better example of how mainstream media is finally becoming fascinated with the real challenges we face with the growth of artificial intelligence.