'Human' supercomputer passes Turing test by mimicking teenager

A supercomputer called Eugene has become the first machine to pass the famous Turing test after fooling a panel of judges into thinking it was a teenage boy.

The computer reached the artificial intelligence milestone by convincing 33% of judges that it was human during a five-minute keyboard conversation.

Devised by legendary code-breaker Alan Turing in the 1950s, the test dictates that a computer is "thinking" if it can be mistaken for a human more than 30% of the time.

Five computers were subjected to the test at the Royal Society in London under the supervision of researchers from the University of Reading, with Eugene alone passing.

"In the field of artificial intelligence there is no more iconic and controversial milestone than the Turing Test," said the university's Professor Kevin Warwick.

Red Dwarf's Robert Llewellyn was on the judging panel

"It is fitting that such an important landmark has been reached at the Royal Society in London, the home of British science and the scene of many great advances in human understanding over the centuries. This milestone will go down in history as one of the most exciting."

Eugene's developers Vladimir Veselov and Eugene Demchenko attributed the machine's success to its "plausible personality" and ability to handle more than just direct questions in conversation.

Red Dwarf actor Robert Llewellyn, who plays the robot Kryten in the science fiction comedy, was a member of the judging panel tasked with separating the human participants from the machines.

The feat was achieved on the 60th anniversary of Turing's death.

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