Goalposts

Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?

2016 MarchHoushalter

About whether the Turing test's goalposts have moved as AlphaGo beats Lee Sedol.

That's because it hasn't been beaten yet! As soon as a chatbot beats a turing test, there will be a lot of AI deniers come out and say that the Turing test doesn't measure 'real' intelligence, or isn't a valid test for <reasons>.

I know this is true, because there are already a lot of people that think the Turing test isn't valid. They believe it could be beaten by a stupid chatbot, or deception on the part of AI. Just search for past discussions on HN of the Turing test, it comes up a lot.

There is no universally accepted benchmark of AI. Let alone a benchmark for AI progress, which is what Go is.

No one claimed that Go would require a human level AI to beat. But I am claiming that beating it represents progress towards that goal. Whereas passing the Turing test won't happen until the very end. Beating games like Go are little milestones along the journey.

A chatbot passes the Turing test.

Has this happened?

Yes 96 (75%)Not sure 13 (10%)No 19 (15%)

Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.