Turing Chatbot Is Chief AI Officer

Written by Mike James

Sunday, 05 May 2024

It was only a matter of time before it happened. A company has created an Alan Turing chatbot and has installed it as its Chief AI officer. A distasteful PR stunt to many, but it's more complicated than that.

Genius Group has decided to create itself some free publicity by creating a chatbot that sounds like Benedict Cumberbatch who played Turing in the 2014 film "The Imitation Game". The stunt has outraged some viewers with perhaps Grady Booch (the inventor of UML) post on X summing it up:

"Absolute and complete trash. I hope that Turing’s heirs sue you into oblivion."

Others comment that the whole idea is disrespectful of a real human being who suffered enough disrespect in this lifetime. To make the point, one clever person decided to chat with Turing AI to see what it made of the idea:

"The line between homage and exploitation can be thin, and it's crucial that it is navigated with care".

Thin indeed. If you try the model out, and you will have to click a few links and avoid signing up to things on the way, then you will discover that Turing AI is very much not Turing Human. If you ask it any personal questions is deflects by saying "I am an AI language model and therefore do not ..."

This, of course, clashes with the impression given in the video that "The real me died 70 years ago and how time flies.." and "My first official video on my new role. I hope you like it. It's good to be back. But my gosh you've all been busy haven't you while I've been away!"

Take a look the PR video and see what you think:

My first official video on my new role. I hope you like it. It's good to be back. But my gosh you've all been busy haven't you while I've been away! pic.twitter.com/nP1ZvbyKHw
— Alan Turing (@AlanTuring_AI) April 23, 2024

Part of the aim seems to be to publicise a paper:

"Alan's first white paper "Preparing for a Post Turing Test World" is a mindblowing read with his new 'Super Turing Test' for AGI. You can read it and chat to Alan AI here: https://geniusteam.ai/alan/"

This does feel like a tacky PR job and it seems to have backfired - let's hope so.

I cannot help but mention a much less tacky resurrection of Turing in the 2020 novel by Ian McEwan "Machines Like Me". In this story, history is rewritten and Turing is alive and well and working on AI. In it he expresses opinions about the nature of AI that seem very likely to have been Turing's had he lived, but is this any less disturbing than Turing recreated as an AI?

In fact, is it more disturbing than Benedict Cumberbatch resurrecting Turing in "The Imitation Game"? The difference seems to be that the AI invites the belief that somehow this really is Turing reborn and not just a fantasy. This is dangerous step because it seems that his reputation endorses the company and the company's white paper, which, of course, has nothing much to do with Turing.

AITuring TURING