Ever wondered how the Loebner Prize Contest -the ‘First Turing Test’- actually takes place? Well, find out for yourself, this is a video report I’ve shot in Brighton, United Kingdom, on Sunday Morning Sept 6th, 2009: Details after the break.
The location
The Loebner Prize is being held at a different location each year. Hugh Loebner normally tries to find a host who is willing to organize this event and who will find a suitable location. If he can’t find anyone, he will simply organize the event in his apartment in New York (like he did in 2007). One of the most important philosophies behind this contest is that every year it should be organized until the gold medal is handed out.
This year the contest was organized by Philip Jackson of the University of Surrey at the Brighton Centre in Brighton (where else?).
The video should speak for itself. The main people (and a link to their profile if available) involved are stated below:
The people
The Judges
Prof Alan Garnham - University of Sussex
Prof John Carroll - University of Sussex
Prof Shalom Lappin - Kings College London
Mr Jon Bentley The Gadget Show
The competitors
Rollo Carpenter - Icogno Ltd and Existor Ltd
Mohan Embar
David Levy - Intelligent Toys Ltd.
The organisation
Organiser - Dr Philip Jackson - University of Surrey
Founder - Dr Hugh Loebner - Crown Industries
The humans
Brian Christian - Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Dave Marks Sandia - National Labs
Olga Martirosian - Meraka Institute
Doug Peters - Nuance Communications Inc.
The Chatbots
Do-Much-More (created by David Levy)
Cleverbot (created by Rollo Carpenter)
Chip Vivant (created by Mohan Embar)
Enjoy the video! If you have any comments, please feel free to enter them below. And if you don’t like to enter Captcha’s, pretending you are human, register as a member (it’s free) and get rid of those for ever (on Chatbots.org at least).