READING: Computers argued, cracked
jokes and parried trick questions on Monday, all part of an annual test of
artificial intelligence carried out at the University of Reading.

Typing away at split-screen terminals, a dozen volunteers carried
out two conversations at once: one with a chat program, the other with a human.
After five minutes, they were asked to say which was which.

Some
were not sure who or what they were talking to. “There was one time when I was
speaking to the two, and there was an element of humor in both conversations.
That’s the one that stumped me more than others,” said Ian Andrews, one of the
judges in Reading, just west of London.

Transcripts of the
conversations showed some savvy judges ruthlessly trying to trip programmes up
with questions about the day’s weather, the global financial turmoil and the
color of their eyes.

“Blue, of course!” answered Eugene Goostman, a
“chatbot” designed by Pennsylvania-based programmer Vladimir Vesselov. Eugene
was one of five programmes competing to pass themselves off as flesh and blood.

A sixth programme, Alice, dropped out when it could not be set up in
time. Fred Roberts’ Elbot scooped the day’s top award: the Loebner Artificial
Intelligence Prize’s bronze medal, for duping three out of 12 judges assigned to
evaluate it.

“I wish I was as good at conversation as Elbot,” the
Hamburg, Germany-based consultant joked after receiving the prize.