Artificial stupidity
Encyclopedia
Artificial Stupidity is commonly used as a humorous opposite of the term artificial intelligence
(AI), often as a derogatory reference to the inability of an AI program to adequately perform basic tasks. However, within the field of computer science
, artificial stupidity is also used to refer to a technique of "dumbing down" computer programs in order to deliberately introduce errors in their responses.
, in his 1952 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence
, proposed a test for intelligence which has since become known as the Turing test
. While there are a number of different versions, the original test, described by Turing as being based on the "Imitation Game", involved a "machine intelligence" (a computer running an AI program), a female participant, and an interrogator. Both the AI and the female participant were to claim that they were female, and the interrogator's task was to work out which was the female participant and which was not by examining the participant's responses to typed questions. While it is not clear whether or not Turing intended that the interrogator was to know that one of the participants was a computer, while discussing some of the possible objections to his argument Turing raised the concern that "machines cannot make mistakes".
As Turing then noted, the reply to this is a simple one: the machine should not attempt to "give the right answers to the arithmetic errors". Instead, deliberate errors should be introduced to the computer's responses.
competition was run in 1991. As reported in The Economist
, the winning entry incorporated deliberate errors – described by The Economist as "artificial stupidity" – to fool the judges into believing that it was human. This technique has remained a part of the subsequent Loebner prize competitions, and reflects the issue first raised by Turing.
However, it is mostly expected to be used within the development and debugging stages of computer software.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
(AI), often as a derogatory reference to the inability of an AI program to adequately perform basic tasks. However, within the field of computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, artificial stupidity is also used to refer to a technique of "dumbing down" computer programs in order to deliberately introduce errors in their responses.
History
Alan TuringAlan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...
, in his 1952 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence
Computing machinery and intelligence
Computing Machinery and Intelligence, written by Alan Turing and published in 1950 in Mind, is a seminal paper on the topic of artificial intelligence in which the concept of what is now known as the Turing test was introduced to a wide audience....
, proposed a test for intelligence which has since become known as the Turing test
Turing test
The Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour. In Turing's original illustrative example, a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with a human and a machine designed to generate performance indistinguishable from that of a human being. All...
. While there are a number of different versions, the original test, described by Turing as being based on the "Imitation Game", involved a "machine intelligence" (a computer running an AI program), a female participant, and an interrogator. Both the AI and the female participant were to claim that they were female, and the interrogator's task was to work out which was the female participant and which was not by examining the participant's responses to typed questions. While it is not clear whether or not Turing intended that the interrogator was to know that one of the participants was a computer, while discussing some of the possible objections to his argument Turing raised the concern that "machines cannot make mistakes".
As Turing then noted, the reply to this is a simple one: the machine should not attempt to "give the right answers to the arithmetic errors". Instead, deliberate errors should be introduced to the computer's responses.
Applications
Within computer science, there are at least two major applications for artificial stupidity: the generation of deliberate errors in chatbots attempting to pass the Turing test or to otherwise fool a participant into believing that they are human; and the deliberate limitation of computer AIs in video games in order to control the game's difficulty.Chatbots
The first Loebner prizeLoebner prize
The Loebner Prize is an annual competition in artificial intelligence that awards prizes to the chatterbot considered by the judges to be the most human-like. The format of the competition is that of a standard Turing test. In each round, a human judge simultaneously holds textual conversations...
competition was run in 1991. As reported in The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, the winning entry incorporated deliberate errors – described by The Economist as "artificial stupidity" – to fool the judges into believing that it was human. This technique has remained a part of the subsequent Loebner prize competitions, and reflects the issue first raised by Turing.
Game design
Lars Lidén argues that good game design involves finding a balance between the computer's "intelligence" and the player's ability to win. By finely tuning the level of "artificial stupidity", it is possible to create computer controlled plays that allow the player to win, but do so "without looking unintelligent".Other applications
According to its definition, a sufficiently developed Artificial Stupidity program would be able to make all the worst cases regarding a given situation. This would enable computer programmers and analysts to find flaws immediately while minimizing errors that are within the code.However, it is mostly expected to be used within the development and debugging stages of computer software.
Further reading
- http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?ArtificialStupidity Describes Artificial Stupidity in the humorous context