What radical question did Alan Turing ask in 1950 that launched the entire field of artificial intelligence?
One paper, one question, and the world of computing was never the same.
The answer
In 1950, Alan Turing published 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence' in the journal Mind, opening with the provocative question: 'Can machines think?' Rather than attempting to define thinking, he proposed an 'imitation game' where a human interrogator tries to distinguish between a machine and a human through text-based conversation. This paper laid the philosophical and practical groundwork for AI research and remains one of the most cited works in computer science, with over 14,000 citations to date.
Source: Mind, Oxford Academic
- turing
- philosophy
- history
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