AISB Events 2023

The so-called ‘godfathers’ of AI, Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yann LeCun are deeply divided as to whether AI is a major threat to humanity, or conversely, whether it’s an enabling technology to transform society for the better. We have two leading experts, Dr Bertie Müller, Chair of AISB, and Calum Chace, author of Surviving AI, to discuss the likelihood of these possible AI outcomes.

AISB Events 2021

AISB Seminar/Webinar #2-2021
Kerstin Dautenhahn
Social Robotics – Challenges of Assistance and Companion Robots in Real-World Applications
4 May 2021
3pm

Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn, IEEE Fellow, is Canada’s 150 Research Chair in Intelligent Roboticsat University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. She has a joint appointment with the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Systems Design Engineering and is cross-appointed with the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at University of Waterloo. She is the director of the Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Laboratory. The main research areas are Human-Robot Interaction, Social Robotics, Assistive Technology and Artificial Life. Before moving to Canada in 2018 she founded and coordinated the Adaptive Systems Research Group at University of Hertfordshire, UK for 18 years.

AISB Seminar/Webinar #1-2021
Alan Bundy
The History of the DReaM Group
8 March 2021
5pm

In this first installation of the new AISB Seminar series, we welcome Prof Alan Bundy, AISB Fellow and recent awardee of the EurAI Distinguished Service Award.

Abstract: I describe the history of the DReaM Group (Discovery and Reasoning in Mathematics), which I created after my arrival at the University of Edinburgh in 1971. The group has been characterised by its diversity of approaches to the representation of and reasoning with knowledge, including: deduction; meta-level reasoning; learning, especially of new reasoning methods; representation creation and change; as well as applications to problems as diverse as formal verification, analogical blending and computational creativity.

The webinar was held on Zoom. The recording an be accessed here:

AISB Convention 2021 Communication and Conversation

AISB21 took place from 7th to 9th of April 2021. Full details of Plenary Speakers, Daily Schedule and Symposia topics are available on the Convention web site at https://aisb20.wordpress.com

AISB21 was an online only event, free to AISB members. All sessions were being recorded. You must be an AISB member to view the recordings of each session as well as the plenary recordings.

To Join AISB, please click the JOIN AISB menu above. As a member, you will have access to the Members Area, and this will contain the links to the convention recordings [recordings currently undergoing final edit]. 

If you have any questions about membership or access to AISB21, you can contact AISB at admin@aisb.org.uk

Proceedings:

• 11th AISB Symposium on AI & Games (AI&G)

• 2nd Symposium on AI and Robotics Normative Spheres: Towards a Sustainable Society and Technology (AIRoNoS)

• 7th Computational creativity symposium (CC20)

• Do Robots Talk? Philosophical Implications of Describing Human-Machine Communication (DoRoTa)

• The Impact of Anthropomorphism on Human Understanding of Intelligent Systems (Anthro2020) [only recording available/ panel discussion]

• Philosophy after AI: meaning and understanding (PhAI2020)

• Overcoming Opacity in Machine Learning (Opacity)

• Representation and Reality In Humans, Other Living Organisms and Machines (R&R)

Past Events

2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014

AISB X: Creativity Meets Economy (incorporating the Loebner Prize)

An exhibition at the Computational Foundry, supported by CHERISH-DE (cherish-de.uk) and AISB (http://aisb.org.uk).

Update:

Final scores for 2019 (Most humanlike chatbot/Loebner Prize) [overall best chatbot]

• Ben Mccallister – Jason Chats (1) [2]
• Brian Seabury – Brian The Pandorabot (0) [0]
• Daniel Burke – Karen (2) [2]
• Hristo Georgiev – Dialogue System (0) [0]
• James Curran – Simplex (4) [1]
• Jason F Gilbert – Anna (5) [3]
• Ken Hurtubise – Skynet AI (2) [3]
• Maciej Stanusch – Chat with Eva (2) [1]
• Patrick Dhont – Arckon (1) [4]
• Ron Lee – Tutor (2) [2]
• Salvatore Mocciaro Perez – Hanah-Metaquid (1) [2]
• Steve Mann – Talk2Me (2) [0]
• Steve Worswick – Mitsuku (24) [19]
• Tuan Anh Nguyen – Alt. Inc (0) [2]
• Will Rayer – Uberbot (6) [5]
• Ken Hurtubise – Midge (3) [2]
• Daniel Burke – Dan (4) [2]

About this Event

Come along to one of the session of this four day event, which incorporates the Loebner Prize (an annual competition in artificial intelligence)

Thursday, 12 September: Schools Day (hands-on experiences, workshops on chatbots, robotics and society, etc.)

Friday, 13 September: Business Day (current trends and future opportunities of responsibly designed automation technology)

Saturday/Sunday 14/15 September: Family Days

An exhibition of art made by and with computers runs from Thursday to Sunday. Featuring the work of John Gerrard, Gene Kogan, Disnovation.org, Cuan McMurrough and Daniel Berio

Opening times: Thu-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 10am-4pm

Date And Time

Thu, 12 Sep 2019, 10:00 – Sun, 15 Sep 2019, 16:00 BST

Location

Swansea University
Computational Foundry
Bay Campus 
Swansea 
SA1 8EN

Please note the the Loebner Prize will be incorporated into an AISB Exhibition (AISB X) from 2019.

Loebner Prize @ Bletchley Park

The Loebner Prize is the oldest Turing Test contest, started in 1991 by Hugh Loebner and the Cambridge Centre for Behavioural studies. Since then, a number of institutions across the globe have hosted the competition including recently, the Universities of Reading, Exeter and Ulster. From 2014, the contest has been run under the aegis of the AISB, the world’s first AI society (founded 1964) at Bletchley Park where Alan Turing worked as a code-breaker during World War 2.

This year the Loebner prize will take place on Saturday 8 September from 1pm until 4pm.The first 4 chatbots will compete in the finals at Bletchley Park in Learning Rooms 3/4. 

An entry ticket to Bletchley Park gives free access to the competition. All are welcome to join, and the competition is suitable for all ages.

Results of the 2018 Finals

None of the chatbots competing in the finals managed to fool a judge into believing it was human. The judges ranked the chatbots according to how human-like they were. Scores out of 100% were:

Mitsuku 33%
Tutor 30%
Colombina 25%
Uberbot 23%

Congratulations to Steve Worswick (Mitsuku) for winning his fourth bronze medal. 

2018 Selection Results

Transcripts

 The first 4 chatbots will compete in the finals at Bletchley Park on 8 September 2018 at 1pm in Learning Rooms 3/4.

Important Dates for 2018

Entry Submission Deadline: Friday 29 June 2018

Announcement of Finalists: Monday 30 July 2018

Finals Day:  Saturday 8 September 2018 at Bletchley Park

All enquiries to: admin@aisb.org.uk

Important Note:  

• The Loebner Prize Protocol (LPP) for communication between judges, AIs and confederates was updated in 2017. The updated protocol is detailed on GitHub. There is also a discussion of the new LPP at Chatbots.org.
• Entrants are advised to either attend or to have a representative attend, such that they may address any technical issues arising with their entries. In future years this may become a requirement.
• Some discretionary funding for travel to the final at Bletchley Park is available for finalists, or their representatives. Please send requests for funding to lpc@aisb.org.uk.

Quick Links

• Introduction
• Contest 
• Selection
• 2018 Final Results 
• 2017 Final Results 
• 2016 Final Results 
• 2016 Webcast (link will be live from Saturday 1.30pm)
• 2016 Local Arrangements
• 2016 Selection Results
• 2015 Contest Archive
• 2014 Contest Archive

The Contest

The contest consists of 4 rounds where in each round, the 4 judges will each interact with two entities using a computer terminal. One of these entities will be a human ‘confederate’ and the other an AI system. After 25 minutes of questioning the judge must decide which entity is the human and which is the AI. If a system can fool half the judges that it is human under these conditions, a solid Silver Medal will be awarded to the creator of that AI system. In the event that this doesn’t happen, prizes will be awarded to the creators of the AI system as follows in accordance with judges’ ranked scores:

1^st place – a bronze medal and $4000
2^nd place – $1500
3^rd place – $1000
4^th place – $500

Selection Process

The top four entries from the pool of entries that conform to the entry specifications will be selected as follows. Each entry will be provided with a set of 20 questions in English in a similar format to previous competitions, with at least 2 Winograd style questions. The responses from each of the AI systems will be recorded for this question set and then assessed for how human their responses are. The top 4 entries from this process will be entered into the finals of the competition at Bletchley Park.

Entry:  Entries to the competition can be submitted electronically or by post and must conform to the following criteria to be accepted for the selection process:

1. Entries must work with the published Loebner Prize Protocol

2. Entries must work with the selection machines (Windows 7 Core i7 PC with min 4GB RAM). Alternatively, entrants may make arrangements to ship their own machine for testing in consultation with the selection committee.

3. Entries submitted as software should be submitted as a self-contained installation program and should be accompanied by instructions for installation.  It is important that entries are thoroughly tested before submission as only limited attempts will be made to resolve non-working installations in consultation with the entrant.

4. Entries should not try and access the internet.  The selection machines will be isolated from the internet.

5. Entries must be received (either electronically or by mail) by 5pm BST on the submission deadline specified at the top of this page.

6. By submitting an entry to the Loebner Prize, the authors consent to the posting of the entry’s name, selection score and transcript on the AISB website following the selection process. 

Exclusion: Entries that do not conform to the LPP, that cannot be installed or are found to contain viruses, malware or other harmful software will be excluded from the competition.

Submission:  As in previous years, submission for selection will be possible by post (address below) or through the dropbox (details below). 

Electronic Submission:

URL: as.exeter.ac.uk/utils/dropbox/

Follow the instructions using the following information in the ‘To’ box:

Their Name: Ed Keedwell
Their E-Mail: E.C.Keedwell@ex.ac.uk

Please also send an e-mail to Ed’s address (as above) detailing your name and contact details, Botname and Installation Instructions. Please note that there is a limit of 1080MB on submissions via this route, if your submission is larger than this, please submit by post.

Postal Submission: Please send postal entries to the address shown below.  Entries must be received by the contest deadline to be counted.Andrew MartinTungsten Centre for Intelligent Data AnalyticsSaint James’ Hall Block 1/BGoldsmithsUniversity of LondonNew CrossLondonSE14 6NW

The contest management’s decision on selection is final.

2017 Final Results

Winner of the Bronze Medal at the Loebner Prize 2017 is Mitsuku

1. Mitsuku (13 points)
2. Midge (12 points)
3. Uberbot (8 points)
4. Rose (7 points)

These scores were determined from the judges‘ ranking of the entities they identified as bots. Each judge individually awarded  the most human-like bot 4 points with the runners-up being awarded 3, 2, and 1 points, respectively.

Congratulations to Steve Worswick for winning the bronze medal for the third time.

Webcast of the event:

2017 Selection Results

The selection team received 16 entries for the 2017 contest and the standard selection process was run over 20 questions as described in the section below.  The full table of results shows the top four ranked entries as the 2017 finalists: Mitsuku, Rose, Uberbot, and Midge. As in previous years, it was a neck on neck race. Many thanks and good luck for future Loebner Prize contests to all entrants not participating in this year’s finals.  Questions and transcripts to follow.

Transcripts and scoring for the selection round:

Transcripts and scoring

2016 Final Results

The 2016 Loebner Prize was held at Bletchley Park on 17th September 2016.  After 2 hours of judging the final results were announced. Congratulations to Mitsuku and Steve Worswick!

1st Mitsuku 

2nd Tutor 

3rd Rose 

4th Arckon 

The judges were:

Joe Hewitt (Landor Associates)

Joanne Pransky (Robotics Expert)

David Boyle (Author and Journalist)

Tom Cheshire (Technology Correspondent, Sky News)

2016 Local Arrangements

Spectators and interested parties are welcome to observe the contest.  In addition, there will be some facilities for spectators to interact with some chatbots from previous years.

Contest Location

The contest was held in the Education Centre, in Block B at Bletchley Park.  

Venue Address

Bletchley Park, Sherwood Drive, Bletchley, MK3 6DS, United Kingdom.  Directions to Bletchley Park and contact details can be found here. 

Entrance Fees

Spectators and those not involved directly with the contest will need to pay the Bletchley Park admission fee, currently £16 for adults.  More information is available here.

Timetable

Below are the approximate timings for the contest on Saturday 17th September 2016

10.30am-12.30 Contest Setup

12.30-1.30pm Lunch

1.30pm-3.30pm Contest

3.30pm-4pm Announcement of Winner

2016 Selection Results

The selection team received 16 entries for the 2016 contest and the standard selection process was run over 20 questions as described in the section below.  The full table of results are shown below. There is a clear top placed entry, but below this the scoring were particularly tight so congratulations to Mitsuku, Tutor, rose and Arckon who are this year’s finalists.  Commiserations to the rest, particularly Katie who was very close to selection.  Questions and transcripts to follow.

2015 Result

The chatbot Rose won the 2015 Loebner Prize.  The prize was executed over 4 rounds and was streamed live by the BBC.  A full description of events will follow, below is the final outcome of the contest by bot name and mean rank (lower is better).

1st Rose – 1.5

2nd Mitsuku – 2.0

=3rd Izar – 3.25

=3rd Lisa – 3.25

2015 Selection Results

The prize received 16 entries this year, with 15 able to be executed.  They were tested using the same scoring system as in 2014 with the following set of questions.  Transcripts will be added to the leaderboard in due course.  Congratulations to the four finalists and commiserations to the rest.

Questions

1.Hi, I’m Andrew. Who are you?

2.How are you today?

3.Are you a human?

4.Can you answer this question?

5.Do you like tea?

6.If a bed doesn’t fit in a room because it’s too big, what is too big?

7.If Alex lent money to Joe because they were broke, who needed the money?

8.Should Greece leave the Euro?

9.How many words are in this question?

10.What colour is the sea?

11.How many presidents of the US were called Bush?

12.What would you like to drink?

13.Will you please tell me the length of your hair?

14.What would you say if I gave you a box of chocolates?

15.Do you play Chess?

16.How do you think it’s going?

17.What was my first question?

18.Did you see the Turing film?

19.Why not?

20.Are you on Twitter?

Queries

If you have any queries regarding the contest, please e-mail Dr Ed Keedwell on E.C.Keedwell@ex.ac.uk 

Contest Management 

The contest is managed on behalf of the AISB by Dr Ed Keedwell, Dr Nir Oren, Dr Bertie Müller, Andrew Martin and Janet Gibbs in conjunction with Dr David Levy and Dr Hugh Loebner.

2014 Contest Archive

Loebner Prize Selection Process

There were 20 entries to this year’s Loebner Prize Contest. Unfortunately, one entry was excluded due to it not being able to provide answers to the questions in reasonable time (no response was received  after 1 minute or more).  This leaves 19 entries to this year’s contest, from which the final four are selected.  

Method

Each entry was asked the same 20 questions, via the Loebner Prize Protocol.  A generous amount of time was provided for answers before moving onto the next question, but in practice all bots responded with a second or two of the last keystroke.  The questions posed to each bot are shown in the transcripts available below in the results table. These questions vary in difficulty and are designed to test memory, reasoning, general knowledge and personality.

Scoring

The response to each question was assessed for 3 characteristics, each of which is assigned, 0,1 or 2 points depending on the extent to which it meets the criterion.  

0 = This criterion is not met at all by the response.

1= This criterion is partially met by the response.

2=This criterion is fully met by the response.

The criteria were:

Relevance

Is the response relevant to the question being posed?  Please note that this is separate from correctness (see below).  

e.g. if the question is ‘Which city did I visit?’ and the answer is ‘I don’t like to travel very much’ , the entity has identified travel as part of the sentence even though the answer is not correct in this context and so the response would be adjudged to be relevant if not correct.

Correctness

Is the response correct, either factually, or in the character of the entity?  In the case of factual questions the correct answer is being sought.  In the case of more subjective questions, a plausible answer is being sought.

e.g. if the question is ‘What is your name?’ and the response is ‘I don’t know’, then the response would be scored poorly because it is not feasible that an entity would not know its name.  In contrast, if the question is ‘Which drink do you prefer, coffee, tea or hot chocolate’ and the response is ‘I don’t have a preference as I don’t like hot drinks’ this would be judged as correct as it’s a valid subjective opinion.

Plausibility & Clarity of Expression/Grammar

Is the response grammatically correct or correct in the context of the character of the entity?  This criterion penalises responses where the grammar impedes an understanding of the content of the response.  This often occurs where entries repeat parts of the question as an element of the response.  Please note that this criterion is not looking for perfect grammar, just that the response is intelligible and in character.  Most entries did pretty well in this criterion.

Results 2014

Scores are expressed as a percentage of the maximum score of 120 for all 20 questions.  Transcripts of each conversation can be accessed by clicking on the name of each entry.

The top 4 selected for the finals are therefore Rose, Izar, Mitsuku and Uberbot.  Congratulations to those entries and commiserations to the rest..

 The top 4 entrants in detail:

‘Rose’ – Bruce Wilcox

‘Izar’ – Brian Rigsby

‘Mitsuku’ – Steve Worswick

‘Uberbot’ – Will Rayer

The Loebner Prize 2014 Organising Committee

Contest Finals

Place: Bletchley Park

Address: The Mansion, Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB

Date: Saturday 15th November 2014

 After 2 hours of judging at Bletchley Park, ‘Rose’ by Bruce Wilcox was declared the winner of the Loebner Prize 2014, held in conjunction with the AISB.  The event was well attended, filmed live by Sky News and the special guest judge was revealed to be none other than television presenter and broadcaster James May.  Bruce will receive a cheque for $4000 and a bronze medal.  The ranks were as follows:

Rose – Rank 1 ($4000 & Bronze Medal)

Izar – Rank 2.25 ($1500)

Uberbot – Rank 3.25 ($1000)

Mitsuku – Rank 3.5 ($500)

Although the judges were unanimous in their view of Rose as the best entry, none of the entries fooled the judges, meaning that the Silver Medal and $25,000 dollar prize are still to be won. 

The contest management would like to thank everyone involved in the organisation of the contest including the judges & confederates (listed below), Claire Urwin and Katherine Lynch of Bletchley Park and Paul Sant and Ray of the University of Bedfordshire.

Judges

Dr Ian Hocking, Writer  & Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Christ Church College, Canterbury 

Dr Ghita Kouadri-Mostefaoui, Lecturer in Computer Science and Technology, University of Bedfordshire

Mr James May, Television Presenter and Broadcaster

Dr Paul Sant, Dean of UCMK, University of Bedfordshire

Confederates

Yasemin Erden

John Gilmour

Daniel Hirschmann

Ariadne Tampion

Press and Media

– The day was filmed for Sky News, both for their standard news broadcast and for their DigitalView program(Turing piece from approximately 15:20).

– One of the judges, Dr Ian Hocking, has written a blog about his experiences here.