Computer chat lines fail to
seduce judgesTop two prizes
for human-like machines unclaimed again.
18 October 2001
ERICA KLARREICH
 |
| Richard Wallace (left) and
Hugh Gene Loebner (right). |
| ©
AliceBot.org | | |
The prestigious Loebner Prize gold and silver medals
- awarded to computers that convince judges that they
are human during a five-minute conversation - have yet
again gone unclaimed.
The medals, worth US$100,000 and $25,000
respectively, have never been won in their 11-year
history.
After chatting with eight computers and two humans at
London's Science Museum, the judges awarded the $2,000
bronze medal for the best program to ALICE, created by
Richard Wallace, founder of the ALICE Artificial
Intelligence Foundation in San Francisco.
Despite answers such as "Leo said I be capable of
learning therefore he classified I as an neural system",
one judge ranked ALICE higher than one of the humans,
says Wallace.
| 
