The day we can?t tell the difference between a human and robot just got a little bit closer. A Turing Test?of sorts has been put to humans to see if they could differentiate between their fellow human and non-human combatants in a first-person shooter game.

The contest, conceived of and organized by Philip Hingston, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, puts human and computer players on the battlefields of the first-person shooter game UT2004. After a few rounds of combat, the humans have to decide which players are human and which are bots. This year, 100 years after Turing’s birth, not one but two bots achieved humanness.

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For Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) Professor Patrick Winston, ...uncovering the true nature of human intelligence is the next grand challenge.To solve the puzzle of how humans think, Winston is employing classic engineering methodology to build systems that think and comprehend as people do using computational methods.... By outfitting machines with language-enabled characteristics the ability to direct our perceptual apparatus to solve problems, to describe events, and to teach through the sharing of stories Winston feels scientists will be able to develop systems that not only can sift through vast amounts of information, but also can deploy human-like precedent-based judgment to help solve complex problems and deal with complex situations.Winston and his students focus on creating systems that use previously acquired common sense knowledge and knowledge of plot patterns when tasked with story-understanding problems, just like humans do.

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