Artificial Intelligence and Anthropomorphism. Does Alan Turings Imitation Game Enhance Anthropomorphism in AI Research?

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Computer Sciences - Artificial Intelligence, grade: 1,3, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, language: English, abstract: In this essay the question will be discussed whether or not Alan Turing's concept of the 'imitation game' enhanced and enhances the tendency for anthropomorphism in the field of AI - and if so, to what extent. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the newest scientific fields, starting in the middle of the 20th century with the goal of creating intelligent entities. Nonetheless the scientific roots of the field reach far behind since the history of humankind - of homo sapiens - has always been coined by the goal of understanding what intelligence is. Therefore, AI is a highly interdisciplinary field of science including engineering, philosophy, mathematics and logics, psychology and other natural sciences. The high potential for controversies in such an interdisciplinary field of study becomes already obvious by the fact that there is no common definition of what intelligence is. Is intelligence something that goes beyond the natural materialistic world and is 'human-exclusive'? Or can it be reached by technical reproduction of the human brain and its cognition?