The aim of the conference is to facilitate dialogue between researchers in philosophy of mind, cognitive science and informatics by providing a venue to present their research on an area of common interest. Members of under-represented groups are particularly encouraged to participate. The conference focuses on the role that the Turing Test has played, and above all can still play, in artificial intelligence research. Ever since it was proposed in 1950, the Turing Test has been a major focus of philosophers and computer scientists alike. Focus on creating AI that can pass the Turing Test has been matched by debate about the adequacy of the Turing Test as a useful measure. Today, the Turing Test is more relevant than ever, as big data and machine learning approaches have made natural-language processing AIs both much more sophisticated and much more prevalent in everyday experience than ever. The conference will address questions such as what modern technological advances can tell us about the Turing Test, what the test can actually measure, and which properties and abilities could be identified with well-designed variations of the Turing Test. Example topics include, but are not limited to:

Objections to the Turing Test;
How difficult is the Turing Test?;
Variations of the Turing Test;
The Turing Test and consciousness;
The future of the Turing Test.

Invited Keynote Speakers:
Diane Proudfoot, University of Canterbury
Paul Schweizer, University of Edinburgh
Huma Shah, Coventry University
Susan Sterrett, Wichita State University

We invite submissions of extended abstracts up to 2000 words. Presentations will be 25 minutes, with 25 minutes for discussion. Please send your paper to s1562862@sms.ed.ac.uk or s1535230@sms.ed.ac.uk with the subject line “Turing Test 2018” and indicating your name and affiliation in the email. The deadline for submissions is Midnight AOE (-12 UTC), September 14th. We especially encourage members of underrepresented groups to apply. Accepted speakers will benefit from a travel bursary.