Fact: The Turing test is a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of an actual human.
Slightly unsettling proposition: The A.I. that can pass the Turing test will pretend it hasn’t.
Well, that’s enough to stop me sleeping for the next three weeks. But, sci-fi horror ‘Skynet’* possibilities aside, the idea of perceived human intelligence is fascinating to me, in particular in the form of robots. Any artificial imitation of the human form usually fails, creating the unsettling ‘uncanny valley’ effect. An artificial presenter will never convince; we need that human connection, so often removed when communicating by an email or a chat program.
Which is why presentations can be so effective, and the reason that you should step out of the shadow of Powerpoint whenever possible.
Be the medium; engage the audience with your personality and character.
* Skynet is a fictional, self-aware artificial intelligence system which features centrally in the ‘Terminator’ franchise and serves as the main antagonist. Its ultimate goal is the extinction of the human race. Ooh, those pesky computers.