AISB 2008 SYMPOSIUM ON THE TURING TEST 
- Sunday 12th October, 2008
- Palmer Building, University of Reading, Whiteknights, UK.
- Sponsored by the AISB, University of Reading and KYBERNETES


To coincide with the annual Loebner Prize this year to be held at the
University of Reading (UK) on the 12th October, the AISB has also elected to
sponsor a small one day invited-speaker symposium to present an alternative,
formal, academic critique of issues surrounding the Turing Test (TT), one of
the aims of which is to attempt to clarify two core issues surrounding the
TT: (a) is a canonical reading of Turing's Test possible and if so (b) what
might such a canonical reading be?

The day will commence with a selection of speakers offering a context and
outlining a special perspective on the TT. These presentations are to be
backed by four more focussed talks addressing specific issues related to the
Turing Test (e.g. definitional; adequacy; tests in other modalities;
technical/computational issues). As added relevance, the event is scheduled
to be held in fully in parallel with the Loebner Prize also at the
University of Reading. And as Kevin Warwick (Professor of Cybernetics at the
University of Reading) recently hinted, "hosting the Loebner Prize is a
great opportunity for the University of Reading. The competition is all
about whether a machine can now pass the Turing Test, a significant
milestone in Artificial Intelligence. I believe machines are getting
extremely close - it would be tremendously exciting if such a world first
occurred in the UK, in Reading University in 2008. This is a real
possibility." 

AISB 2008 SYMPOSIUM ON THE TURING TEST 
======================================

09:50 WELCOME (Dr. Mark Bishop, Goldsmiths)

SESSION 1: CHAIR: Prof. Kevin Warwick (Reading)
10:00 Baroness Susan Greenfield (Oxford)

11:00 ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE TURING TEST & COFFEE

SESSION 2: CHAIR: Prof. John Barnden (Birmingham)
11:20 Prof. Selmer Bringsjord (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA) 
12:10 Dr. Michael Wheeler (Stirling)

13:00 BREAK FOR LUNCH

SESSION 3: CHAIR: Dr. Mark Bishop (Goldsmiths)
14:00 Dr. Andrew Hodges (Oxford)
14:50 Prof. Luciano Floridi (Herts/Oxford)

15:40 LOEBNER ANNOUNCEMENT & COFFEE

SESSION 4: CHAIR: Ms. Huma Shah (Reading)
16:00 Prof. Maggie Boden (Sussex)
16:50 Prof. Owen Holland (Essex)

17:40 PANEL DISCUSSION (ALL): Is there a canonical Turing Test?

18:00 CLOSE (approx. timing)

If Professor Warwick’s suspicions are well grounded, this AISB symposium on
the Turing Test promises to be a truly groundbreaking event and we
anticipate considerable media attention around the 11am announcement.
Nonetheless if you are interested in attending the event in person there are
places available; these can be reserved by sending your name+address and a
cheque made payable to ‘AISB’ for either: £25 (public); £20 (member AISB) or
£10 (full-time student/unemployed/OAP) to: Dr. J.M.Bishop, Dept. Computing,
Goldsmiths, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW.