Turing Test
Definition
A thought experiment proposed by mathematician Alan Turing in 1950: if a person chatting with a hidden machine can't tell it from a human, the machine might be said to "think." For decades it was the famous benchmark for machine intelligence. Modern chatbots can arguably pass casual versions of it, which has mostly revealed that the test measures imitation rather than understanding. It's more a piece of history now than a serious yardstick.
Why It Matters
It comes up whenever people debate whether AI is "really" intelligent. Knowing what it does and doesn't prove keeps that conversation grounded.
What does that look like in practice?
Chat with a hidden correspondent and try to tell whether it's a person or a machine. That's the Turing test in a nutshell.
What people actually mean when they say this
When someone says AI 'passed the Turing test,' they mean it fooled people in conversation, which shows good imitation, not real understanding.
Last reviewed: June 2026
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