Very simple question, in Ex Machina did Ava pass the Turing test? Or was it just that she
was smarter than Caleb and tricked him into helping her escape?
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Sign up to join this communityVery simple question, in Ex Machina did Ava pass the Turing test? Or was it just that she
was smarter than Caleb and tricked him into helping her escape?
This was discussed in an interview with the film's writer/director Alex Garland. In short, Ava could pass a classic Turing test (blind, with the interrogator in another room) without breaking a sweat. What Nathan is interested in is not whether she can pass an arbitrary test of language and response but whether she's actually sentient and conscious.
Q. So Domhnall’s character is administering a Turing Test…
Garland: Sort of. It’s pedantic, but it’s sort of a post-Turing Test. It’s a blind test. A Turing Test is really a test to see if you can pass the Turing Test. You can pass the Turing Test and not be sentient. What he’s saying is, this machine would pass the traditional form of the Turing Test; I want to know if I can show you it’s a machine, and you still think it’s sentient. It’s a step up.
Alex Garland On ‘Ex Machina’, Oscar Isaac, the Fate of the ‘Dredd’ Sequel
The definition of a Turing Test states:
"a test for intelligence in a computer, requiring that a human being should be unable to distinguish the machine from another human being by using the replies to questions put to both."
The interrogator in this case was made aware of it being a machine, and aesthetically she is clearly a robot. In the letter of the definition it was not a Turing Test, though in the spirit of it as a "test of humanism and intelligence" Ava displayed distinctly human traits (manipulation, deceit, rage).
I'm a human, I watched the movie, and I considered the Ava character to be as sentient and self-aware, as much of a person, as any of the human characters. So, yes, I would say she definitely passes the Turing test.