Loebner Prize

(artificial intelligence)

Loebner Prize - An annual competition in artificial intelligence started by Dr. Hugh Loebner of New York City in 1991. A $100,000 prize is offered to the author of the first computer program to pass an unrestricted Turing test. Annual competitions are held each year with a $2000 prize for the best program on a restricted Turing test. Sponsors of previous competitions include: Apple Computer, Computerland, Crown Industries, GDE Systems, IBM Personal Computer Company's Center for Natural Computing, Greenwich Capital Markets, Motorola, the National Science Foundation, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and The Weingart Foundation. The 1995 and 1996 events were unrestricted Turing Tests, requiring computer entries to converse indefinitely with no topic restrictions. So far, even the best programs give themselves away almost immediately, either by simple grammatical mistakes or by repetition. Complete transcripts and IBM compatible diskettes that play the 1991, 1992, and 1993 conversations in real-time are available for purchase from the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies (telephone: +1 (617) 491 9020, Fax: 1072). Sponsorship opportunities are available. Loebner Prize Home.