In 1950, Alan Turing published a paper ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence.’ This seminal paper, published over 70 years ago, engaged with the topic of Artificial Intelligence and introduced the now well-known Turing Test, or, in its original nomenclature, the Imitation Game. Turing posited a way to measure a ‘machine’s’ capacity to exhibit ‘intelligent behaviour.’ In brief, the Turing test sees three participants (one human judge, one human gamer, and one computer) in isolated rooms and at different computer terminals. Both the human gamer and the computer seek to convince the human judge that they are human – with the judge left to decide. Ironically, the Turing test didn’t actually test a machine for its ‘intelligence’ – a human interrogator was tested for their capacity to discern human from machine. At the time, Turing’s test entered popular culture with a raft of sci-fi genres subsequently heralding the impending triumph of machines over humanity.

My first Turing test came as a young teacher in the early 2010s. Suddenly, the internet was a commonality and (shock horror) students were even able to use it to search for answers to questions designed to engage them with course material. (How could this be? Why would students use this highly effective, time saving strategy!?) Along came the un-googleable or non-googleable question. Educators everywhere were upskilled on how to compose questions so that students were asked to reflect, collaborate, and synthesise – instead of simply recalling. We became better educators, our students became better thinkers, and we passed the Turing test.

And now, there’s ChatGPT, or Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022, and capable of passing the Turing test, as well as many a university assignment. Representations of ChatGPT in the media remind me of early sci-fi movies evoking paranoia and confusion (beware the machine!). The good news is that international and institutional experts tell us that ChatGPT is not a threat to education nor educational integrity. We can pass this Turing test by reconsidering once more how we engage our students. What types of assessment pieces do we use? Are our learning opportunities authentic? Are there opportunities for personal reflection? Is the learning context-driven? Do we use and value feedback?

So, are you up to the test?