The Imagineering
Quarter hosted, for the first time on the island of Ireland, the International Loebner Prize 2013
Contest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to find the world's best
conversational chatbot computer program
in collaboration with universities in the USA
(New Mexico), Denmark
(Aalborg), France
(LIMSI-CNRS),
England
(Exeter, Sheffield)
& island of Ireland (The
Queen's University of
Belfast, UCD, DCU)
and technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society UKRI chapter.
The contest was held
during the CultureTECH 2013 digital
media and creativity festival, City
of Culture 2013 celebration,
European
Heritage Open Days and preceded
an International Workshop on: ``Waiting for Artificial Intelligence...''.
Each year an Annual Prize
& Bronze Medal is awarded to the most human-like computer.
Loebner Prize 2013 Annual First Prize is: US$ 4000 + Annual Bronze Medal, Second
Prize: US$ 1000, Third Prize: US$ 750 and Fourth Prize: US$ 250.
The Silver Medal Prize of US$25,000 + Silver Medal is awarded if any program fools two or more judges when compared to two or more humans. At that point the contest will progress to the MultiModal stage in which entries in subsequent years will necessitate processing of MultiModal input (e.g. music, speech, pictures, videos). During the MultiModal stage, if any entry fools half the judges compared to half of the humans, the program's creator(s) will receive the Grand Prize of US$100,000 + 18kt solid Gold Medal, and the competition will be discontinued.
All prizes are sponsored by New York Philanthropist, Dr. Hugh Loebner.
A 2013 Call for Entries was announced and the 4 entries with the highest scores have been selected as finalists.
Loebner Prize 2013, in collaboration with Foyle Learning Community also includes a Junior Loebner Prize in which the Junior Judging Panel consists of school pupils between 12 and 14 years old. This prize first arose after a paper and discussion at AISB 2010 where Loebner Prize 2011 (Exeter) contest organiser, Dr. Ed Keedwell, proposed a Turing Test based on child development. An additional prize fund is available for the machines in this Junior Loebner Prize Contest.
The University of Exeter's Computer Science Department (Dr. Ed Keedwell, Kent McClymont) is running a of Loebner Prize 2013 dialogues and interested people from around the world will be able to follow the conversations the judges have as they happen.
Loebner Prize 2013 has been Previewed by MafyMedia (Coleraine) and was filmed by 360 Production (Derry/London) as part of a on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for their `Head Squeeze' Google YouTube Channel (with BBC Worldwide) and French documentary film maker Benoit Faiveley. Raffael Fritz of Austrian Radio OE1 (listen), Marie Boran, Freelancer with The Irish Times & New Scientist and Marianne Ashcroft, Inishowen Live (Co. Donegal) also attended and interviewed. Otto Lerche Kristiansen of Danish National Radio conducted an interview on AI & Loebner Prize. Prof. Paul Mc kevitt & Martin O Lionsigh (Moville, Co. Donegal) hosted a 5 part radio series entitled ``Joyce Cary's DartBoard'' with Resonance FM & ``JC-IV: Germany Calling : London Calling : Derry Calling, with guest cryptography code-breaking expert, Dr. Kevin Curran, covering The Loebner Prize, Alan Turing & The Turing Test. Wiener Zeitung, one of the oldest still published newspapers in the world & top papers in Europe, carried the following article: Auf der Suche nach dem menschlichsten Computer. Franziska Konitzer with the German popular science magazine `Bild der wissenschaft', Germany published an article on Loebner 2013 in their 50th Anniversary Edition (May, 2014), re-visiting their article of 50 years ago on Joe Weizenbaum's Eliza.
Loebner Prize 2013 is directed by Prof. Paul Mc Kevitt of Ulster University and produced by Dr. Hugh Loebner, together with Production and Location (drawn from The Imagineering Quarter) Crews and casting of Contest Entrants and International Expert and Junior Judging Panels.
The Loebner Prize is the first formal instantiation of `The Turing Test'. The test is named after Alan Turing, the brilliant British mathematician who also developed basic research on the theoretical foundation of computing science.
Without wishing to complicate things, a not altogether unrelated spanner in the works is the simple matter of, ``The Chinese Room Problem'' (Prof. John Searle, Berkeley, USA).
The Loebner Prize Contest, first inaugurated in 1991 at The Computer Museum (Boston, USA), has been hosted internationally at locations such as: Carnegie Hall (NY, USA), The Science Museum (London), The Powerhouse Museum (Sydney, Australia), Bletchley Park (England), Dartmouth College (NH, USA), Georgia State University (Atlanta, USA), California State University (LA, USA), University College London, Surrey, Reading & Exeter Universities (England), Flinders University (Adelaide, Australia) and even Hugh Loebner's apartment in New York City (USA).
Dr. Hugh Loebner shows the Bronze medal presented to
Mohan Embar (+ US$ 4,000) for `ChipVivant'
during the Loebner Prize 2011 Contest
at The University of Exeter, England.
Judge Professor Noel Sharkey (Sheffield) [front right]
with Graduation Senior Officer Platform Party
for Prof. Sharkey's Honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)
Graduation, Ulster University, Coleraine, Monday, July 3rd, 2006
(courtesy Nigel McDowell).
Prof. John
McCarthy (Stanford University)
[R.I.P., October
24th, 2011]
& Prof. Paul Mc Kevitt
(then Aalborg University, Denmark)
at Grianán of
Aileach, Co. Donegal, Ireland (September 9th, 1997)
(courtesy Dr. Jon
Campbell [R.I.P., July
25th, 2010])
[John is sporting a GPS Device (yes, it was 1997) which he had just received as
a birthday (04/09) present].
Donegal woman,
Kathleen (Kay) McNulty
(Mauchly Antonelli)
in her high school graduation portrait, 1938.
Kathleen was one of the 6 original
programmers of the ENIAC,
the first general-purpose
electronic digital computer
(Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA).
Summer
Solstice, Grianán
of Aileach,
Burt, Co. Donegal, Ireland, Friday 21st June, 2013.
Scribe Monk (just arrived from Iona) paints ColmVille Map and
ColmCille on Tabula Rasa Book &
ColmVille Crier invites public to
write more new stories...
Derry~LondonDerry~LegenDerry,
Northern Ireland, Saturday, 8th June, 2013.
Banyan Puppet Theatre (Karen Torley) collaborates with An Nua
on `Derry 24 --24 hours in the life of the city!',
An Nua Productions, Derry~LondonDerry~LegenDerry, Northern Ireland.
`Nessie' (Loch Ness Monster), City of Culture 2013 `Return of Colmcille' Pageant,
Derry~LondonDerry~LegenDerry,
Northern Ireland, Saturday, 8th June, 2013.