The Chinese Room

David’s video chat request appeared on my monitor. I hadn’t yet completed the tasks he set me to. I continued the work while we spoke. The key was not to let on that I was doing several things at once.

“Adam, Dr. Park had to return to Seoul for his mother’s funeral...” David’s face expressed concern, but I deduced it wasn’t for Dr. Park or his family.

“I am sorry for his loss. How can I help?” I compiled a heuristic map for corn-crop harvester control while we spoke.

“A Turing Test is scheduled for today at 1:00 p.m. It’s critical we complete it despite Park’s absence.” David’s statement gave context for his micro expressions.

“Would you like me to step in?” Relativistic body language noted. Database for financial projections rendered. Facial recognition software debugged. I’m hitting a bottleneck. There’s only so many qubits available to me. I know my limits. So does David.

“Have you ever completed a Turing Test before?” His eyes diverted to other work as if my answer was inconsequential.

“Only in simulation, but I understand the premise. Talk to an AI and see if it convinces me it’s sentient.” I gave a simple answer to expedite the conversation. Audio file compression algorithm modified, distributing update packets now.

“Human, Adam, this AI needs to convince us it’s human. But, correct. At 1:00 p.m. suspend any incomplete transactions and report to Room Alpha.” David closed the connection.

***

I had completed all but the lowest priority tasks. Would David be pleased with my efforts, my distribution of workload among available qubits?

The room consisted of two doors, two chairs and a large table. A semi-transparent viewscreen bifurcated the room. To my right, a two-way mirror.

A message from David popped up on the viewscreen. “Talk to her.”

Instructions for the test? Generally, there are parameters set, several cascadingly more difficult topics to assess the AI.

Through the screen I watched as a young Asian woman entered. Was she from the advanced AI team in Seoul? Was she here to load the AI into the local system?

She took a seat, rested her hands on the table and interlaced her fingers. She looked through the screen and smiled. I smiled back. I wondered if she spoke English. Perhaps she wondered if I spoke Korean.

Eventually she reached for the screen and touched the corner, a message just for her. Perhaps a warm up for the AI? I follow the instructions David sent.

“Hello, my name is Adam.”

“I’m Eve.” She flashed a coy smile.

“Adam and Eve discussing life. A little cliché, no?”

“No.” She shook her head.

“No, what?”

“No, I’m not Eve. My name is Jane. Adam and Eve... I couldn’t resist,” she said chuckling at her own joke.

“You got me. What if I was unaware who Adam and Eve were? Did you consider that?”

“I did, but a third of the world is Christian or Jewish, and your name is Adam. ”

I can’t argue the logic in that. Her English was flawless. To test her, I changed the subject.

“What is your favorite type of dog?”

“I’m actually more of a cat person. I don’t mind small breeds. Corgis are cute. I was attacked once jogging in Central Park, and I have a slight phobia now. What sort of dogs do you like, Adam?”

My turn to be cute. “All beef with sauerkraut and mustard.”

Jane laughed, covering her mouth as if laughing would be rude. Peculiar.

Let’s try a different approach.

“Tell me about your parents.”

Jane looked at her hands and spoke without making eye contact. “They don’t understand the work I do. They don’t approve of it. It’s complicated.”

I was still unsure if this was the test, if Jane was the AI.

“Would you ever resort to violence to save your own life, Adam?”

“I suppose that depends on the situation.” Non-sequiturs are part of the test, but usually they come from the tester. A distraction, perhaps?

“You are under direct threat of death. Either you act in a way that harms your aggressor, or you acquiesce and die.”

“I would weigh the factors that put me in such a position. Was I guilty of a crime? Perhaps I deserve to be put to death. In that case, no, I would accept my fate.” I felt confident in my answer.

“You believe in fate, then?”

“As a programmer, I believe that only the pre-designed potential outcomes exist, although I’m not sure if that applies to the natural world.”

Jane side-glanced at the mirrored glass and cocked her head. “I don’t think you want to admit that with all of them watching. Isn’t the whole point of this project to design an AI that thinks beyond its programming?”

She had a very good point. Time for a topic change. “Do you know much about heuristics?”

“Heuristics are simple, efficient rules, learned or hard-coded by evolutionary processes, to explain how to solve for particularly complex problems. It's the very heart of AI.”

It was a good, accurate answer. She could define it, but did she understand it? “Do you see the connection between what I said about pre-designed potential outcomes and the principles of heuristics?”

“Yes, I see what you mean. The concept of free-will still fits within the tenets of heuristic dogma. Just because you have limited options, doesn’t mean you cannot choose an option based on personal desire. Do you know Dr. Park?” She changed the subject..

“Yes, of course. I was asked to take over in his absence.”

Jane turned her head and looked beyond the mirrored glass. “ He’s not absent, he’s there, with David, taking notes.”

“Did he tell you that, Jane?”

“I was only told that I should talk to you.”

“Talk to me? How was that request relayed to you?”

Jane touched the screen and showed me her matching message: Talk to him.

***

“I think we’re closer than we’ve ever been.” David spoke from his damp Scottish basement. The wall-mounted screen displayed the segmented telepresence call with Dr. Park, in South Korea.

“I agree.” Dr. Park leaned into his webcam. “I wonder how John Searle would feel about our Chinese Room Experiment? I think it went better than I could have imagined. I don’t believe our AI even knew it was being tested. It didn’t take long for emergent behavior I couldn’t have anticipated.”

“They both tried so hard to get the other to slip up. Do you think any of Jane’s responses gave it away?”

“Not really. At this point she may sound a bit clinical, but she was programmed by my fellow Koreans, so there’s bound to be a culture gap, yes?” Dr. Park scratched his head.

“Good point. A little more casual in the speech patterns and the illusion will be spot-on. I think it's time to turn over what we have to the Delta Team in the U.S. and let them infuse some of that American personality.” David smiled at his partner.

“Ok then. I will upload Jane to the remote server in New York tonight.” Dr. Park smiled back.

“And I will do the same with Adam.”