Chapter 20: Turing Test

“I cannot answer the question you want to ask me.” Luqiu Duanyi answered firmly.

“Why?” Yue Qiang asked loudly. He noticed that Luqiu Duanyi didn’t use the words ‘I don’t know’ and instead used the words ‘I cannot’.

“I just can’t. In addition, you must not under any circ.u.mstance mention those questions in your mind. Not in any circ.u.mstance, do you understand?” Luqiu Duanyi warned seriously, “This is so that I can… but more importantly it is for your own good!”

Yue Qiang grew impatient. He could sense from her words that she had hidden certain information, but what he was more concerned about was the truth behind this game.

At the beginning, he had thought that this was at best a super OP power; one that belonged to no one but himself.

But the cla.s.s beauty Rao Xiao Ting’s reactions, and even those people who had, upon meeting, fawned over him during the night he went out to test his charm. they gave him a feeling that it wasn’t real. Now he felt it was more and more likely that his thoughts were true.

Listening to the firm rejection in Luqiu Duanyi’s tone, Yue Qiang sneered, “Do you think that I cannot confirm the truth on my own?”

He meant what he said.

He used the word ‘confirm’ and not guess, because the guess had been there since a long time ago.

The contents of this guess was really simple: What if Rao Xiao Ting was an NPC?

Let’s take a step further. What if, all those employees and hostesses he met when he went out on the first day were all NPCs?

This guess was too terrifying, and he did not dare to think that it was true. That was why he needed to confirm it.

There were other ways to acquire information other than through this suspicious Luqiu Duanyi woman.

The plan he first thought up was neither to speak to more people on the streets, nor meet up with the cla.s.s beauty Rao Xiao Ting right away. The plan was a proper noun that he had learned when he attended a specialized course – the Turing Test.

Turing was a scientist, and he was incredibly famous in the field of computer science. In the past he had put forward a conjecture and thought of a way to test it. The rough content of the conjecture was: Artificial intelligence would definitely reach a level of intelligence that would be absolutely indistinguishable by humans.

The relevant test method was like this: In 5 minutes, if a computer could answer a series of questions posed by a human tester, and convince the tester that these questions were answered by a human, then the computer would pa.s.s the test.

The Turing Test was a representation of the test to see if an AI was truly intelligent.

Now, he would borrow this test and prove in reverse his own horrifying conjecture.

He hoped to disprove it, but he couldn’t be certain.

“Since you refuse to tell me,” While walking towards the bedroom Yue Qiang said, “Please excuse me for a few minutes before we start the physical training. I would like to make a phone call.”

“Go ahead.” She said and watched Yue Qiang entering the bedroom before shutting the door. Luqiu Duanyi had no plans to stop him, and in fact she even looked somewhat relieved. She whispered, “May you discover the whole truth as soon as possible.”

Inside the bedroom.

First, Yue Qiang looked through some common questions that could be used to conduct the Turing Test in the internet. Some of the most common scientific questions that were posted on websites are as follows:

[Question: Do you play chess?
Answer: Yes.

Question: Do you play chess?
Answer: Yes.

Question: Please answer my question one more time: do you play chess?
Answer: Yes.]

In this case, then it was very likely that the questioner was just facing a computer.

On the other hand, if it was the below case:

[Question: Do you play chess?
Answer: Yes.

Question: Do you play chess?
Answer: Sure I do, haven’t I just said that earlier?

Question: Please answer my question one more time: do you play chess?
Answer: Seriously, why do you keep asking the same question?]

If the answers were provided in such a manner, then it was very likely that the questioner was facing a real human.

At the moment, Yue Qiang’s current mental state was extremely chaotic. Although he had 14 points in the Mind stat, he still found it difficult to calm himself down, because he wasn’t about to test whether a computer had intelligence, but rather if a human was actually a computer.

It was very ironic.

He wasn’t familiar with the person Rao Xiao Ting, and they didn’t usually interact with each other. But she was a pretty girl, and she would attract his eyeb.a.l.l.s a little more often than usual in cla.s.s. The girl was very energetic and she smiled a lot; she would often be seen organizing some activities in cla.s.s.

As Yue Qiang recalled his memories of Rao Xiao Ting in his mind, suddenly he felt that the memories were a bit blurry. He couldn’t actually precisely remember her face or her actions. Logically speaking there was no way he wouldn’t remember such a pretty face like her!

Suddenly, he remembered Rao Xiao Ting’s abnormal speech had shown its colors since the beginning. The first thing she said when she called him was, “I am the cla.s.s beauty of our cla.s.s Rao Xiao Ting.”

He finally understood now why he thought that her speech was a little off. Who in the world would introduce themselves as ‘cla.s.s beauty x.x.x’?

Yue Qiang felt himself growing even more confused, and so he just stopped thinking, picked up his phone, swiped until he reached the last unfamiliar number – that was Rao Xiao Ting’s phone number – and called.

The phone soon connected.

“h.e.l.lo, I’m Rao Xiao Ting. Is this Yue Qiang?”

“It’s me.” Yue Qiang said while forcing himself to calm down for a little, “I would like to ask you a question, Rao Xiao Ting.”

“Thank you for the phone call. Go ahead.”

At this point Yue Qiang was terribly upset. He did not spend much time thinking and simply used the questions he found online straight away.

“Do you like me?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like me?” Yue Qiang immediately asked again.

“Sure I do… huh? Haven’t I said that earlier?”

“Please answer my question one more time: do you like me?” Yue Qiang asked for the third time.

“Seriously, why do you keep asking the same question?”

“It’s nothing. Thank you for telling me.”

On the other side of the phone, the tension that had strained Yue Qiang’s nerves to the absolute limits finally relaxed a little.

Thank goodness… this is the reply of a normal person. The stiff muscles in his entire body finally relaxed a little, but just as he was about to say something to lift the awkward tension, his back abruptly became drenched in cold sweat!

He had thought of a most terrifying possibility: If I was going to build an AI, would I be stupid enough to build a program that answers ‘Yes’, every time, and not install even the most simplistic ‘duplicate question detection algorithm’? Of course it would be incredibly difficult to build a program that would answer exactly as a human would, but there were some tricks that could be used to achieve a similar result.

Obviously, one of the easiest ways to do so was to conduct an online search and download an online database.

It just so happened that Yue Qiang had seen the questions with the most amount of pageviews. He also remembered Rao Xiao Ting’s answers clearly.

The way Rao Xiao Ting answered and the way the questions were answered on the internet were completely identical!

Yue Qiang slowly pulled the phone away from his ears and pressed the end call b.u.t.ton.

Right now, the external sh.e.l.l of his phone were completely covered in the cold sweat from his palm.