The Turing Test (Mamen)

Ask your students the following questions in open class:

• Do you think a computer will be invented that can interact with a human without the human realising that it’s a computer?
• How well do you think computers cope now with language?
• Have you ever used a translation tool? Have you found it useful/ accurate? Has the translation been good enough to use?

 Tell your students they are going to do a computer based activity and that their first task is to use the internet to find out who Alan Turing is and what the following have in connection with him.

• The Enigma Code
• poisoned apple
• Gordon Brown  
• Steve Jobs (
• The Turing Test

 Students  work in pairs  and think of five questions they would ask the computer to find out if there was a human answering them or whether the answers were coming from a robot/the computer. RULE: they are not allowed to ask whether the 'person' is a robot/computer.

Then ask students to work alone and to speculate what the answer is going to be.

Students then follow this link: http://alice.pandorabots.com/ and http://www.cooldictionary.com/splotchy.mpl and start their chat with the person/robot.

Students then chat to Captain Kirk: http://sheepridge.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=fef38cb4de345ab1&skin=iframe-voice