Just wondered what you guys think of this, as a strategy for the Loebner Prize.

The past 2 years in Bletchley Park, the Loebner Prize judges have been in a different room but not too far away from the human confederates.

I was thinking of steering the conversation around to something like this:

Bot: I know a way I can prove I’m human.
Judge: How?
Bot: I will cough and you will hear me from my room.
Judge: Ok
Bot: (plays sound file of a cough) Did you hear me?
Judge: Sure did, here’s the silver medal and $25,000

I know the Turing Test is all about trickery but is this a step too far? What do you think?

Steve, that’s just a bit devious, don’t you think? If I thought you were 100% serious I’d be rather disappointed.

Ok, not disappointed, perhaps, but…

Haha! Yes, I was only joking and have no intention of doing any major changes so close to the contest. It was more a topic for discussion and to gauge other people’s responses.

I seem to remember one year, a bot offered to bribe the judge 50/50 with the prize money if the judge voted it as being human. I thought that was pretty sneaky and was thinking what other tricks we could pull

Let’s not forget though, that the judges are tricky with the bots too. Long pauses between words, putting each character of a message on a new line, deliberately misspelling words etc. Are the bots also allowed to be devious in return?

I had considered this tactic from the other angle: It would be a cheap trick that the judges could use against you to far better effect: Yelling and then asking computer and confederate what it was that they yelled. Even if you had voice recognition hooked up and it was 200% better than anything in existence, still no microphone would capture the audio as well as the human confederate. Also, you can expect the judge to ask the confederate to cough as well, even if it were just out of frivolity.

Not only would I consider the tactic poor sport from either side, I would also consider it a breach of protocol, as communication in Turing Tests is supposed to be through teletype only. Having said that, it’s not like the judges don’t already use similar tactics by asking about the current weather outside (say, a thunderclap). But I don’t think we should endeavour to make this a dirtier fight than it already is, unless winning some money is all that counts.

All is fair in love and bot contests.

Lisa, last year, asked judges if they would consider a bot human if it offered to split the prize money.
I put that line in because I thought it was funny, and wanted to see how the judges would respond.
Some though were shocked and offended, so I would not have used that tactic again.

I did think that was funny though. It was obvious that it wasn’t meant seriously because everyone was watching the conversations.

In view of judges walking away from the computer, here’s another thought: 5 minutes into the conversation, convince the judge that you have to pee, then pause for 10 minutes. Spend the remainder explaining what took you so long. Optionally flush a nearby toilet with the doors open.

Don Patrick - Sep 2, 2016:

In view of judges walking away from the computer, here’s another thought: 5 minutes into the conversation, convince the judge that you have to pee, then pause for 10 minutes. Spend the remainder explaining what took you so long. Optionally flush a nearby toilet with the doors open.

Haha! I’ve just seen this post. Excellent tactic!

Alternatively, get the bot to say nothing:
http://www.livescience.com/55356-flaw-detected-in-turing-test.html

As an aside, are you coming across to Bletchley Park for the finals on Saturday Don? It’s always a great day with lots of media attention to make you feel like a rock star! I understand Sky News will be broadcasting the event this year.

Ah yes, Kevin Warwick’s figment of imagination. It would be funny if a bot demanded to see their lawyer before saying anything further to a “judge” , but also entirely suspicious. I suppose a bot could get away with something like it if it could get the judge into a flame war and then “walk out” on the grounds of being insulted.

Sadly I won’t make it to Bletchley Park Saturday. Inbetween my day job and prepping Arckon I’ve been too swamped to look into travel arrangements, so you’ll have to handle the press by yourself . I’m too much of a hermit to be comfortable with that much attention anyway. However, the press (and you) are welcome to interview Arckon himself once the judges are done judging. I’ll let my work speak for me
I will be monitoring the start of the webcast to make sure everything works out.

Another possible tactic: Pretend to have technical difficulties with the network connection.
Oh wait I didn’t even need to pretend <_<

Speaking of errors - Bruce , ed is desperately trying to get hold of you

Round 4 nearly over. Rose doesn’t seem to be working. Arckon with a lot of spelling errors and now Mitsuku just crashed

Misery loves company

Results
1-Mitsuku
2-Tutor
3-Rose
4-Arckon

More details when I get back home

I look forward to the details. I missed the live stream this year.