The Turing Test famously aims to test the abilities of artificial intelligence by tasking humans with uncovering when they’re talking to a person and when they’re talking to a machine. It tests the ability of AI to understand human language sufficiently to be able to hold natural seeming conversations.
As anyone who has tried to have a conversation with an AI-powered chatbot or virtual assistant can attest, there remains some way to go before technology can master this most human of abilities. New research from the University of Maryland aims to help AI progress by identifying some 1,200 questions that, while pretty easy for humans to answer, have traditionally stumped the best technology available today.