Alan Turing (1912–1954) was an English mathematician and logician, widely regarded as the father of computer science. Turing was deeply intrigued by the concepts of intelligence and thought, as well as the idea of replicating them through machines. His most notable contribution to artificial intelligence is the “imitation game,” now famously known as the Turing Test.

In this test, a human interrogator communicates with two participants, labeled A and B, through written messages. If the interrogator is unable to determine which participant is a computer and which is a human, the computer is considered to have passed the test. The premise is that if a computer can engage in natural language conversation indistinguishable from a human, it can be deemed to have achieved human-like intelligence.

Turing’s perspective on intelligence mirrors the sentiment of Forrest Gump’s saying, “stupid is as stupid does.” In Turing’s terms, it would be, “intelligent is as intelligent says.” Simply put, an entity is considered intelligent if its behavior is indistinguishable from that of another intelligent entity. By focusing solely on verbal interaction, Turing eliminated the influence of physical appearances in the assessment.