[seanwilson]

> One of the first computer programs that successfully passed the Turing test was Eliza. Created in 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum, Eliza skillfully emulated the speech patterns of a psychotherapist in its conversations.

Why was the Turing test still relevant after this? Didn't this indicate it was very flawed test? Or it was hard to come up with a better test?

[recursivecaveat]

I can find no reference of an actual Turing test being done for Eliza. If you look at the link from the article it is clearly demonstrably failing their (different, and more difficult to interpret, but still fair I thiiiink) runs today as well. Note that people constantly willfully misinterpret what a turing test is.

A turing test means you enter into two conversations. Then you pick which one was with a computer. If people answer wrong 50% of the time, the computer is indistinguishable, hence it passes. Note that it is not "People get wrong whether their single conversation is talking to an AI >50% of the time" and it is definitely not "sometimes people don't realize they're talking to an AI". In particular people constantly write about the latter because it generates clicks.

[GuB-42]

The variant of the Turing test that Eliza has passed is the easiest one. That is: convince a novice interrogator that what is on the other side of the screen is a human.

The real turing test (the imitation game) involve a computer and a human subject, both talking to a human interrogator. The interrogator must determine who is the human. It is an adverserial situation, both the human subject and interrogator do everything in their power for the interrogator to correctly identify the computer. The computer has to not only convince the interrogator, but also do it better than the human subject. Furthermore, both humans are supposed to be experts in the game, just like the computer that is designed to pass the test. So, not just random people.

[canjobear]

Because Eliza didn’t pass the Turing Test. It is trivially easy to trip it up.