In a blog post addressing the reports, Ray Kurzweil writes: the fact that there’s a test worth arguing about implies that artificial intelligence is beginning to near the point where it might actually pass a Turing Test, even if these early examples aren’t quite what we imagine the final product looking like.

There’s little doubt that chatbots will continue to trick humans in the future, but there seems to be agreement that the AI just isn’t there yet for it to happen without restrictions, like those imposed on this recent test. […]