Alan Turing's decades-old question still influences artificial intelligence because of the simple test he proposed in his article in Mind. In this article, AI Magazine collects presentations about the first round of the classic Turing Test of machine intelligence, held November 8, 1991 at The Computer Museum, Boston. Robert Epstein, Director Emeritus, Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, and an adjunct professor of psychology, Boston University, University of Massachusetts (Amherst), and University of California (San Diego) summarizes some of the difficult issues during the planning of this first real-time competition, and describes the event. Presented in tandem with Dr. Epstein's article is the actual transcript of session that won the Loebner Prize Competition--Joseph Weintraub's computer program PC Therapist. In 1985 an old friend, Hugh Loebner, told me The intricacies of setting up a real Turing Test excitedly that the Turing Test should be made that would ultimately yield a legitimate into an annual contest. We were ambling winner were enormous. Small points were down a Manhattan street on our way to occasionally debated for months without dinner, as I recall. Hugh was always full of clear resolution. Turing, proposed a variation on a simple Four years later, while serving as the director parlor game as a means for identifying a of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, machine that can think: A human judge an advanced studies institute in Massachusetts, interacts with two computer terminals, one I established the Loebner Prize controlled by a computer and the other by a Competition, the first serious effort to locate person, but the judge doesn't know which is a machine that can pass the Turing Test. If, after a prolonged conversation at Hugh had come through with a pledge of each terminal, the judge can't tell the difference, $100,000 for the prize money, along with we'd have to say, asserted Turing, that some additional funds from his company, in some sense the computer is thinking. Crown Industries, to help with expenses. The Computers barely existed in Turing's day, but, quest for the thinking computer had begun. I'll then describe that After much debate, the Loebner Prize Committee first event, which took place on November 8, ultimately rejected Turing's simple 1991, at The Computer Museum in Boston two-terminal design in favor of one that is and offer a summary of some of the data generated more discriminating and less problematic. Finally, I'll speculate The two-terminal design is troublesome for about the future of the competition--now an several reasons, among them: The design presumes annual event, as Hugh envisioned--and that the hidden human--the human about its significance to the AI community.

In some Winter, 1991) brought a broad nostalgic The principles of statistical pattern mature and highly technical disciplines, smile to my face. I believe that recognition I had employed then are this mode of thought can be I am the unnamed Yale junior faculty very general indeed. Unfortunately, this is not member to whose work Prof. Schank very principles form the basis of all the case in our chosen pursuit of the alluded. Perhaps the intervening contemporary speech recognition essence of mind which should be years have eradicated his memory of systems which, in their best incarnations seen as a young and interdisciplinary my name or, more likely, he wished here at Bell Laboratories and enterprise. I, transcribing fluent speech of virtually organisms, she was not constrained however, fully mindful of Oscar any speaker talking about a specific by the academic boundaries that Wilde's observation that the only topic and using a vocabulary of thousands have since evolved.

I give an introduction to Bayesian networks for AI researchers with a limited grounding in probability theory. Over the last few years, this method of reasoning using probabilities has become popular within the AI probability and uncertainty community. Indeed, it is probably fair to say that Bayesian networks are to a large segment of the AI-uncertainty community what resolution theorem proving is to the AIlogic community. Nevertheless, despite what seems to be their obvious importance, the ideas and techniques have not spread much beyond the research community responsible for them. This is probably because the ideas and techniques are not that easy to understand. I hope to rectify this situation by making Bayesian networks more accessible to the probabilistically unsophisticated.

Second, I was one of the few academic AI AAAI can encourage practitioners to Corporate functions. Applications researchers who attended some sessions make their data available to researchers. In addition to helping researchers in used in successful applications. AI research is relevant to the prob-in this regard. University of California Second, my research has recently at Irvine focused on learning methods that If you have a track record of successfully revise the knowledge base of an expert developing and deploying system when the expert system conflicts knowledge based systems to solve with an expert's decision on a real-world problems, and you wish set of examples.

Letters to the Editor

First, the the other does. No theorist is going Thank you for the opportunity to split between the neats and scruffies to spend his or her time attempting respond to the letters by Jim Hendler, is old and institutionalized, as to bring precision to a mess of hacks, James Herbsleb and Mike Wellman Hendler points out. Few researchers kludges and "knowledge," and no regarding my survey of the Eighth are trained in both camps. Second, system builder is apt to find the National Conference on Artificial the pathologies that researchers in attempt informative. MAD does not Intelligence (AI Magazine, Volume 12, AAAI-90 themselves attributed to mean business as usual with occasional No. 1).

Letters to the Editor

In Memorium: Jonathan J. King (1949-1991)