Alan Turing: Father of A.I.

Alan Turing was a British mathematician and logician, who was born in London, United Kingdom on June 23, 1912, and died on June 7, 1954. He is now renowned as one of the most powerful thinkers of the 20th century, through his major contributions to the fields of mathematics, cryptanalysis, logic, philosophy, and mathematical biology. His work’s influence extended much beyond his lifetime to what we now know as computer science, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and artificial life (Copeland).

Turing developed a hypothetical device known as the universal Turing machine, that was initially concieved as a machine that would recognize undecidable propositions, or mathematical statements that cannot be deduced as either “true” or “false” (Britannica). The mathematical model instead proved that there cannot be a universal algorithmic method to determine if a proposition is to be considered “undecidable”. However, this device came to be the foundation of the digital computer, integrating all essential proponents of information processing, such as input/output, memory, and the storage unit (Britannica), marking his groundbreaking work in the development of computer design.

Additionally, Turing is known as a founding father in a field that is still being developed today: artificial intelligence. He hypothesized that the human brain operates like that of a computing machine, stating that the infant frontal cortex may be considered an “unorganized machine”, and that it is through life experiences that it may be “trained” towards organization. To assess the sentience of a machine (i.e. if an articial machine is capable of forming original thought, or intelligence), he proposed an “imitation game”, now known as the Turing Test. Here, an interrogator must distinguish between a computer and human subject on the basis of their responses to a series of questions. Thus, the “sentience” of a computer is measured by the likelihood that the interrogator mistakens the machine for the human subject.

Despite his achievments, at the end of his life, he was thought to be a criminal. He was convicted for his sexual oriented, and was chemically castrated by force. Following his death, the coroner had concluded that he had taken his own life by cyanide poisoning (Cowell). His contributions are fundamental in the development of technology as we know it today, but beyond this fact, it is important to honor his life and work in full acknowledgement of the wrongful injustices inflicted upon him.

Copeland, B.J. “Alan Turing.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 19 June 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-Turing.

Cowell, Alan. “Overlooked No More: Alan Turing, Condemned Code Breaker and Computer Visionary.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 June 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/obituaries/alan-turing-overlooked.html.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Turing Machine.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 3 Apr. 2020, www.britannica.com/technology/Turing-machine.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Turing Test.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 7 May 2020, www.britannica.com/technology/Turing-test.