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To pass the classic Turing test, a computer must convince the tester that it’s human. In a new ACS Central Sciencestudy, Sheref S. Mansy and colleagues got artificial cells to communicate chemically with living bacterial cells. The artificial cells demonstrated that they heard the natural bacterial cells by glowing and responded by releasing chemical signals back to the bacteria.
We spoke to Mansy about the work.
ResearchGate: What is the Turing test?
Sheref S. Mansy: The Turing test was formulated over sixty years ago to evaluate whether a machine could behave intelligently. One nice aspect of this test was that it avoided the contentious issue of defining intelligence. Instead, if a machine can trick a person through textual communication into believing that the machine is another person, and thus not a machine, then the machine must display some level of intelligence to pull off this deception.
RG: What motivated your study?
Mansy: We have been interested in the divide between living and nonliving chemical systems for quite some time now, but it was never really clear where this divide fell. Then a couple of papers pointed out that a cellular version of the Turing test could conceivably be built and thus provide a much-needed benchmark for the field. All cells engage in some form of chemical communication. If we could build an artificial cell that can trick a natural cell into "thinking" that it is talking to another natural cell, then we would have made a big step forward in constructing a more life-like chemical system. We felt that we were well positioned to put together artificial cells that could engage in two-way chemical communication with bacteria, i.e. artificial cells that could be used in a cellular version of a Turing test. We also realized that the cellular Turing test could be used to quantify how life-like the artificial cells are.
RG: What did you find?
Mansy: First, it is absolutely possible to make artificial cells that can chemically communicate with bacteria. Artificial cells can sense the molecules that are naturally secreted from bacteria and in response synthesize and release chemical signals back to the bacteria. Such artificial cells do a reasonably good job of mimicking natural cellular life and can be engineered to mediate communication paths between organisms that do not naturally speak with each other.
www.acs.org
We spoke to Mansy about the work.
ResearchGate: What is the Turing test?
Sheref S. Mansy: The Turing test was formulated over sixty years ago to evaluate whether a machine could behave intelligently. One nice aspect of this test was that it avoided the contentious issue of defining intelligence. Instead, if a machine can trick a person through textual communication into believing that the machine is another person, and thus not a machine, then the machine must display some level of intelligence to pull off this deception.
RG: What motivated your study?
Mansy: We have been interested in the divide between living and nonliving chemical systems for quite some time now, but it was never really clear where this divide fell. Then a couple of papers pointed out that a cellular version of the Turing test could conceivably be built and thus provide a much-needed benchmark for the field. All cells engage in some form of chemical communication. If we could build an artificial cell that can trick a natural cell into "thinking" that it is talking to another natural cell, then we would have made a big step forward in constructing a more life-like chemical system. We felt that we were well positioned to put together artificial cells that could engage in two-way chemical communication with bacteria, i.e. artificial cells that could be used in a cellular version of a Turing test. We also realized that the cellular Turing test could be used to quantify how life-like the artificial cells are.
RG: What did you find?
Mansy: First, it is absolutely possible to make artificial cells that can chemically communicate with bacteria. Artificial cells can sense the molecules that are naturally secreted from bacteria and in response synthesize and release chemical signals back to the bacteria. Such artificial cells do a reasonably good job of mimicking natural cellular life and can be engineered to mediate communication paths between organisms that do not naturally speak with each other.
Passing the chemical Turing test: Making artificial and real cells talk - American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society: Chemistry for Life.
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