Recently, there has been growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI), but the birth of AI dates back 60 years.
In 1950, British mathematician Alan Turing developed the Turing test, a method for determining a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from that of a human.
The test was introduced in his paper, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." In 1956, the term artificial intelligence emerged for the first time in the world.
The Turing test is also known as the “imitation game.” A movie with the same title was released in February last year. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the ill-fated code-breaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game.
The movie, set in 1951, starts in an interrogation room at the Manchester Police Department.
Alan Turing:
“Are you paying attention
…………………………………
What/ will need from you now
is a commitment.
You will listen closely and you will not
judge me until I am finished.
………………………………..
What happens from this moment
forward is not my responsibility.
It's yours.”
What Alan Turing says to a police officer hints at the powerful ramifications of what he is about to say.
During World War II (1939-1945), three people die every second. To end the worst war in history that kills more people than any other war before, Britain declares war on Germany in 1939, and recruits code breakers to form a cryptography team. The team tries to break the ciphers created by the German Enigma machine, which the Nazis use to provide security for their radio military messages.
Though the Allies of World War II can intercept encoded messages but are unable to decipher them. Moreover, a standard three rotor Enigma machine could be set up 158,962555,217826,360000 different ways, that’s almost 159 million million million. The Nazis change the Enigma settings every day, so German Enigma messages are considered unbreakable.
Alan Turing does not give up. However, he knows that Enigma messages could not be decrypted by the human brain because it would take humans 20 million years. Turing has difficulty working with his colleagues, so he chooses to work alone to design a machine to decode Enigma messages. Such a move is not supported by Commander Alastair Denniston, head of the cryptography team. When Denniston turns down his request for 100,000 pounds to build the machine, Turing writes a letter to Winston Churchill requesting the funds. Prime Minister Winston Churchill puts Turing in charge of the team and funds construction of the machine.
Turing fires team members and places a difficult crossword in newspapers to find replacements. Joan Clarke (played by Keira Knightley) and Jack Good pass Turing's test. Clarke and Turing become good friends and Clarke helps him get along with other team members. Later, Turing proposes to Clarke and she accepts.
Turing's machine is constructed; Turing names it Christopher. However, Turing cannot determine the Enigma settings fast enough before the Germans reset the Enigma encryption each day. The British government’s patience wears thin. They give Turing a one-month ultimatum to either make Christopher work or face fearful consequences. Turing and his team members feel frustrated with Christopher producing no results at all.
With the deadline fast approaching, Turing and his team members drown their sorrows at a bar. After overhearing a conversation between Clarke’s friend Helen and fellow cryptographer Hugh Alexander, Turing has an epiphany and he recalibrates Christopher. It quickly decodes Enigma messages. (You’d better watch the movie to find out exactly how Turing breaks the stalemate.)
Turing and his fellow cryptographers provide the Allies of World War II with German military intelligence before the Germans will realize Enigma has been broken.
World War II finally comes to an end. The team is disbanded. After the war, the cryptographers are told to destroy their work and not reveal what they have done. Turing is left alone once again.
As a matter of fact, Turing is homosexual. The machine being named Christopher has something to do with Turing's homosexuality. It is the name of the guy Turing developed romantic feelings for while he was at boarding school.
That’s why Turing cannot dream about getting married with Clarke. The direct events that lead Turing to that interrogation room in the beginning of the movie have something to do with Turing's homosexuality. In the 1950s, Turing is convicted of indecency and, given the choice of a jail sentence or chemical castration. He selects the latter to continue his work.
Turing was not an ordinary guy. That’ why we are living in a better world than before. Christopher Morcom: “Sometimes it's the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine.” Alan Turing had to live a painfully lonely life because of his sexual orientation. Alan Turing is considered by many to be the father of modern computer science.
