Taking the fifth amendment in Turing’s imitation game

Abstract

In this paper, we look at a specific issue with practical Turing tests, namely the right of the machine to remain silent during interrogation. In particular, we consider the possibility of a machine passing the Turing test simply by not saying anything. We include a number of transcripts from practical Turing tests in which silence has actually occurred on the part of a hidden entity. Each of the transcripts considered here resulted in a judge being unable to make the ‘right identification’, i.e., they could not say for certain which hidden entity was the machine.

Keywords:

• Deception detection
• natural language
• Turing’s imitation game
• chatbots
• machine misidentification

Acknowledgements

Figure 1: Harjit Mehroke for Figure 1(a); C.D. Chapman for Figure 1(b).

Notes

1. Cornell University, Legal Information Institute: http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fifth_amendment: ‘No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury’.