Hugh Loebner - Agenda Setters 2008

Name: Hugh Loebner

Title: AI researcher

Position: 35    Last year: Not ranked

Why? Encouraging artificial intelligence

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• Brent Hoberman
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• Sabeer Bhatia

Hugh Loebner is a new addition to the Agenda Setters list for his efforts to advance artificial intelligence.

Since 1990 he has sponsored the Loebner Prize, a $100,000 award to the individual or organisation that produces the first computer to meet the Turing Test - the ability to produce responses that are indistinguishable from a human's.

Bletchley Park code-breaker and computing pioneer Alan Turing came up with the test as a result of his belief that machines should be able to think - something known as natural language processing.

While the top prize has yet to be awarded, Loebner also grants an annual award of $2,000 to the most human-like computer.

The former academic is also working on ways to reduce energy use and congestion, having spoken at one of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing town meeting.

But it's his work to encourage the creation of the first 'thinking' machine that makes him an Agenda Setter.