An online game that challenges players to work out if they are talking to each other or to an AI chatbot has launched.
Human or Not?, developed by AI21 Labs, bills itself as a “social Turing game” in reference to the famous test developed by mathematician Alan Turing to see if machines could exhibit human-like intelligent behaviour.
In the original proposed experiment, a human would talk to one human and one machine without being able to see them. If they could correctly identify which was which, then the machine failed the test. But, if it could successfully imitate people so that the human evaluator could not tell the difference, then it would pass.
The Human or Not? game takes place in time-limited two-minute text chats. The player exchanges short messages with an unknown other party and, at the end of the conversation, has to guess if they were speaking to a real person or an AI.
Human or Not? also uses a range of different so-called Large Language Models (LLMs), including GPT-4, Claude, Cohere, and AI21 Labs’s own model Jurassic-2.
The game is free to play, on the dedicated website, but it is only available for a limited time.
Developers say it is “part of a larger scientific research project” and that they hope it will “help all of us better understand what AI models can do in 2023”.
AI21 Labs was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Last year, it raised $64 million (£51.6 million) to keep developing its technology in the natural language processing field.
How to play Human or Not?
Once you land on the homepage of Human or Not?, you can immediately click a button to start the game.
After a few seconds, the game will match you with another player or an AI bot, and will randomly assign who gets to start the conversation.
For each message you send, there is a 20-second timer. Once the time elapses, whatever you have written will be sent, even if you’re not done writing. If you haven’t written anything, the conversation will end early.
Once you have exchanged a few messages and the two-minute limit is up, the conversation stops and you won’t be able to speak to the other side any more.
Next, you are asked whether you spoke to a human or an AI bot, and have to pick one. The game will then tell you if you got it right or wrong.
But, if it turns out you were talking to a human, you won’t get to find out whether they thought you were a bot or not.
Be aware, the site can’t control what other people say to you. If you need to report a conversation, click the three dots in the top right-hand corner of the screen next to the timer. This is also where you can leave the game if you don’t want to continue a conversation.
Human or Not? is also not designed for children under the age of 18. In the game’s privacy policy, AI21 Labs say they do not offer products or services for use by children. Kids should not be providing personal data to the game without the involvement of a parent or guardian.
