The Matrix. "Blade Runner (1982)" Theatrical Trailer. Alan Turing: The experiment that shaped artificial intelligence. 20 June 2012Last updated at 19:00 ET By Prof Noel Sharkey Artificial Intelligence, University of Sheffield Computer pioneer and artificial intelligence (AI) theorist Alan Turing would have been 100 years old this Saturday. To mark the anniversary the BBC has commissioned a series of essays. In this, the fourth article, his influence on AI research and the resulting controversy are explored. Despite advances in computer technology, scientists have not been able to create a "thinking machine" that can pass the Turing Test Alan Turing was clearly a man ahead of his time. In 1950, at the dawn of computing, he was already grappling with the question: "Can machines think?
" This was at a time when the first general purpose computers had only just been built. The term artificial intelligence had not even been coined. Yet his ideas proved both to have a profound influence over the new field of AI, and to cause a schism amongst its practitioners. Knocking down naysayers The Imitation Game AI moves on. Kazuo Ishiguro: 'Never Let Me Go' Science and Progress.