Remember the Turing Test? That was Alan Turing's famous test of computer intelligence, first published in 1950. Essentially, a computer passed the Turing test for human-grade intelligence when it answered questions in a way that was fully human — that is, indistinguishable from a human being. (For some interesting Turing numbers, check the LJ Index.)
The search engine business lives entirely outside Turing's shadow. Stupid answers are just not a problem: they're a standard. The more the better. Case in point: the very popular and well-promoted site Ask Jeeves (www.askjeeves.com).
Jeeves is a bald and dapper cartoon that insists, like the game Jeopardy, that you frame your search in the form of a question. So here is our dialog with Jeeves:
Q: Who is Linus Torvalds?
A: I think you may have misspelled something. Did you mean: Who is Linus Travelogs? Travelled? Traveled? Travailed? Travolta? Trivets? Trifocals? Travelogues? Gravitas? Traffics? Groveled? Grovelled? Gravelled? Graveled?
Q: Huh?
A: Where can I read the chapter from Bulfinch's mythology about Orpheus and Euridice, Aristaeus, Amphion, Linus?
Q: Uh. Let's click on Ask! again.
A: Linus was the instructor of Hercules in music, but having one day reproved his pupil rather harshly, he roused the anger of Hercules, who struck him with his lyre and killed him.
Q: Thank you.