The test suggested by Alan Turing (1912–54) in his paper ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’ (Mind, 1950), for judging whether a machine is making an adequate simulation of the human mind. The test is also known as the imitation game. A person and the machine communicate with an interrogator who is kept apart. The interrogator may ask questions with the intent of distinguishing the human from the machine. The machine passes the test or wins the game if after an interval of time the interrogator cannot distinguish the machine from the human. Turing was optimistic that within a few years computing machinery that could win the game would be developed. But in the upshot difficulties such as the frame problem suggest that it is much harder than he expected to program a device to give a passable imitation of common-sense reasoning capacities and ordinary human skills.
Philosophy dictionary. Academic. 2011.