On Feb 18, 10:57*am, Giles wrote:
On Feb 17, 5:25*pm, Jonathan Cook wrote:

Watson would be fun at a
party but still a long way from passing a Turing test:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test

I don't really have an opinion on either of the above contentions, but
I find it curious that so many people still think of a machine passing
a Turing test as some sort of holy grail. *

Hell, I know *people* who could not pass the Turing test. And I've
encountered answering machines that held their own for a few seconds,
too.

--riverman