|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The result: The winning entry on Saturday 18 October 2003 was Jabberwock, authored by Juergen Pirner of Hamburg. Juergen receives the Bronze Medal and a cheque for $2,000. Chat to the online version of Jabberwock Full transcripts of all the judges'
conversations are available for downloading as a zip file (163,607
bytes). |
The 2003 Loebner Prize Contest was held at the University of
Surrey, Guildford, UK on Saturday 18 October 2003. It was hosted by the Digital
World Research Centre, with technical assistance from Maybot Ltd, under the
aegis of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, Massachusetts, USA.
The Loebner Prize Contest is the first formal Turing Test of artificial intelligence. It carries a Grand Prize of $100,000 and a gold medal for the first computer program whose conversation is indistinguishable from a human's. Although this achievement may be some way off, the "most human" program each year wins a prize of $2,000 and a bronze medal.
 |
 |
Professor Patrick Dowling, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey, said: "We are honoured and delighted to host this fascinating event, which focuses on the interaction between people and digital technology. It reflects the University's commitment to world class interdisciplinary research that will ultimately find important commercial applications." |
 |
Entry details for the 2003 contest.
The following organisations kindly supported the 2003 Loebner Prize Contest by donations of funds or equipment:
 |
UniSdirect co-ordinates promotion and
support for University of Surrey-based research and enterprise, including the
protection and commercialisation of Intellectual Property generated at the
University. It also has responsibility for the provision and promotion of
University expertise to small and medium sized enterprises. |
 |
Interwoven is a leading provider of
enterprise content management. The Interwoven 5 Platform has been used at more
than 1,100 global enterprises, including British Airways, Cisco Systems,
General Electric, General Motors, and Philips to power their eBusiness
initiatives. |
The 2003 Loebner Prize Contest is affiliated with the following organisations:
 |
The Human-Computer Interaction Group
of the British Computer Society provides a forum for all working or interested
in the field of HCI and usability. The Group's central concern is to improve
usability and the effectiveness of any computer-based technology. |
 |
The British Computer Society's Specialist
Group on Artificial Intelligence provides support to developers and users
of artificial intelligence technology of all kinds. Among its other activities,
the group runs an annual competition for Progress Towards Machine
Intelligence. |
The 2003 Loebner Prize Contest was part of a one day event.
On the morning of Saturday 18 October there was a colloquium, Bots Mean Business, which introduced the local business community to the capabilities and benefits of chatterbots and related technology.
In the afternoon of Saturday 18 October, the Loebner Prize Contest itself was held.
In 1950, Alan Turing, the brilliant British mathematician and code-breaker, asked, "Can computers think, and if so, how would we know?". The Loebner Prize Contest addresses this question by comparing computers with humans. A panel of judges hold conversations by typing at terminals, each of which is connected either to a program or to a real person. The judges rate their conversational partners for "humanness", and the highest ranked computer system wins.
The Loebner Prize Contest has taken place annually since 1991, and this year attracted over twenty entries from all around the world.
|
The Digital World Research Centre investigates the relationships between people, society and digital technologies. The Centre has undertaken multidisciplinary research for organisations such as the BBC, the EU, Fujitsu, Orange and Vodafone. |
|
Maybot Ltd provides interactive software personalities that engage customers in one-to-one conversations using everyday language. Maybot Characters can be used as communication and marketing tools on websites. |
|
The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, based in Concord, Massachusetts, helps people find effective solutions to behavioural problems. It seeks to bridge the gap between the research community and society by sponsoring activities that disseminate and interpret behavioural research findings for the benefit of those whose problems involve human behaviour. |
|
Dr Hugh Loebner is a New York philanthropist and donor of the prizes. By training he is a sociologist with interests in methodology and mathematical sociology. |
|
|
|
|
|