How my program passed the Turing Test

In 1989, the author put an Eliza-like chatbot on the Internet. The conversations this program had can be seen - depending on how one defines the rules (and how seriously one takes the idea of the test itself) - as a passing of the Turing Test. This is the first time this event has been properly written up.

This chatbot succeeded due to profanity, relentless aggression, prurient queries about the user, and implying that they were a liar when they responsed. The element of surprise was also crucial. Most chatbots exist in an environment where people expect to find some bots among the humans. Not this one. What was also novel was the online element. This was certainly one of the first AI programs online. It seems to have been the first (a) AI real-time chat program, which (b) had the element of surprise, and (c) was on the Internet.

We conclude with some speculation that the future of all of AI is on the Internet, and a description of the "World-Wide-Mind" project that aims to bring this about.

1. 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.