Can Machines Think?(2)

I had read through Turing's paper about computation intelligence. When I read the exercises of the first chapter of Artificial Iintelligence: A Modern Approach, the second subject was about this paper. The assignment was iinteresting. The third theme was about Turing test. There was a famous prize about Turing Test. I found out some information about this famous prize. It was as follows:

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Loebner Prize Gold Medal

What is the Loebner Prize?

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The Loebner Prize is the first formal instantiation of a Turing Test. The test is named after Alan Turing the brilliant British mathematician. Among his many accomplishments was basic research in computing science. In 1950, in the article Computing Machinery and Intelligence which appeared in the philosophical journal Mind, Alan Turing asked the question "Can a Machine Think?"He answered in the affirmative, but a central question was: "If a computer could think, how could we tell?" Turing's suggestion was, that if the responses from the computer were indistinguishable from that of a human,the computer could be said to be thinking.

In 1990 Hugh Loebner agreed with The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies to underwrite a contest designed to implement the Turing Test. Dr. Loebner pledged a Grand Prize of $100,000 and a Gold Medal for the first computer whose responses were indistinguishable from a human's. Each year an annual prize of $2000 and a bronze medal is awarded to the most human computer. The winner of the annual contest is the best entry relative to other entries that year, irrespective of how good it is in an absolute sense.

Further information on the development of the Loebner Prize and the reasons for its existence is available in Loebner's article In Response to the article Lessons from a Restricted Turing Test by Stuart Shieber.

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Rules for 2005 Contest

In honor of 15 of years of competition, the cash award for 2005 will be $3000.
In 2005 the $25,000 and the Silver Medal will be at risk.

The fifteenth annual Loebner Prize contest take place:
10:00 - 16:00, Sunday, 18 Sept 2005, at 220 W. 98th St #2B, New York, NY.

Important Dates: All times

Friday, April 1, 2005: Opening date for submission of entries.
Thursday, June 30, 2005: Closing date for entries.
Thursday, July 21, 2005: Prescreening results announced (if necessary)
Thursday, Sept 1, 2005: Semi-final 8 results announced (if necessary)
Sunday, Sept 18, 2005: Loebner Prize 2005 Contest in NY

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Winners of Previous Contests

1991 Joseph Weintraub , Thinking Systems Software
1992 Joseph Weintraub, Thinking Systems Software
1993 Joseph Weintraub, Thinking Systems Software
1994 Thomas Whalen , Government of Canada Communications Research Center
1995 Joseph Weintraub, Thinking Systems Software
1996 Jason Hutchens Centre for Intelligent Information Processing, University of Western Australia
1997 David Levy, Intelligent Research Ltd.
1998 Robby Garner
1999 Robby Garner
2000 Richard Wallace
(another link)
2001 Richard Wallace
2002 Kevin Copple
2003 Juergen Pirner
2004 Richard Wallace

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This test was interesting and challenging.