Notes on the Loebner Contest Grand Prize Rules

This document was submitted as a position paper for the Human Computer Conversation workshop being held in conjunction with the January, 1998 Loebner Competition. Hugh Loebner, the founder of the Loebner Prize in Artificial Intelligence, has received much crticism for his decision to extend the "Turing Test" to audio-visual media. This essay suggests groundrules for this "Grand Prize" which attempt to pacify the critics by reviving the spirit of Turing's original Game.

1. Loebner Prize - The Loebner Prize is an annual competition in artificial intelligence that awards prizes to the computer programs considered by the judges to be the most human-like.

2. Artificial Intelligence - Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals and humans.

3. Turing Test - The Turing test, developed by Alan Turing in 1950, is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human.