From Robert Pleming
In response to John Crocker’s challenge, I can offer something better than the Turing test (21 August, p 22). Two copies of the same artificial intelligence program are made to converse with each other. The result can evolve in several ways:
Pleming Level 0: The conversation between the two programs will stop, or never start.
Level 1: The conversation will evolve into a loop, with the same topics occurring in a predictable never-ending sequence.
Level 2: The conversation will meander around a random set of topics with no emergence of new ideas and concepts.
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Level 3: The conversation will result in the creation of demonstrably new and original ideas and concepts.
I submit that a program behaving at Pleming Level 3 would show the creation of genuine artificial intelligence. Any resemblance to what happens in pub conversations is purely coincidental.
Alresford, Hampshire, UK
