The Daily Beast wrote:
For the first time in history, a “super computer” has passed the iconic Turing Test. Designed by computer-science engineer and World War 2 codebreaker Alan Turing, the test requires that a computer dupes 30 percent of humans using it into thinking they’re interacting with a real person during a five-minute exchange. At the Royal Society in central London, the computer program “Eugene Goostman,” which was designed to simulate a 13-year-old boy, tricked 33 percent of judges into thinking it was a human. “Eugene” was developed by Vladimir Veselov, a Russian-born man who lives in the United States, and Ukrainian Eugene Demchenko. who lives in Russia. While others have claimed their programs passed the Turing Test, this was declared as the first official time.
Now that is pretty interesting! I can't imagine what sort of topics the judges discussed with "Eugene," though - unless "he" used some impenetrable netspeak like any other teenager, and the judges gave up trying to understand "him."
The Winnipeg Sun wrote:Matthew Hewlett and Caleb Turon, both Grade 9 students, found an old ATM operators manual online that showed how to get into the machine's operator mode. On Wednesday over their lunch hour, they went to the BMO's ATM at the Safeway on Grant Avenue to see if they could get into the system.
"We thought it would be fun to try it, but we were not expecting it to work," Hewlett said. "When it did, it asked for a password."
Hewlett and Turon were even more shocked when their first random guess at the six-digit password worked. They used a common default password. The boys then immediately went to the BMO Charleswood Centre branch on Grant Avenue to notify them.
My favourite part is the bank giving the boys a note to take back to school, explaining why they were late returning from lunch.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." - Nim the chimp Animation courtesy of shadowinthelight (thanks again!)
The Winnipeg Sun wrote:Matthew Hewlett and Caleb Turon, both Grade 9 students, found an old ATM operators manual online that showed how to get into the machine's operator mode. On Wednesday over their lunch hour, they went to the BMO's ATM at the Safeway on Grant Avenue to see if they could get into the system.
"We thought it would be fun to try it, but we were not expecting it to work," Hewlett said. "When it did, it asked for a password."
Hewlett and Turon were even more shocked when their first random guess at the six-digit password worked. They used a common default password. The boys then immediately went to the BMO Charleswood Centre branch on Grant Avenue to notify them.
They are clearly smart.
The fact that they immediately reported what they had done, directly to the bank, also shows that they're wise. If they hadn't done so, there's a good chance that they'd have ended up in jail... and because they did, they're (quite properly) being seen as heros!
I'm guessing that they've also seen "Spaceballs", and tried "123456" as the password.
Somebody in the bank's security department has probably had a really bad day lately, for not assuring that the default password was changed when the ATM was installed.
MerchManDan wrote:Now that is pretty interesting! I can't imagine what sort of topics the judges discussed with "Eugene," though - unless "he" used some impenetrable netspeak like any other teenager, and the judges gave up trying to understand "him."
I've misplaced the link, but apparently you can talk to "Eugene" via Princeton's site...
(Oops - no you can't - it's a 404.)
Proof Positive the world is not flat: If it were, cats would have pushed everything off the edge by now.
MerchManDan wrote:Now that is pretty interesting! I can't imagine what sort of topics the judges discussed with "Eugene," though - unless "he" used some impenetrable netspeak like any other teenager, and the judges gave up trying to understand "him."
"The individual lacked any sort of focus, was extremely socially awkward, frequently lapsed into repetitive behaviour, grossly misused language, and in general was totally incomprehensible. Clearly a young teenager."
