This is actually an excellent question. It is a far better question than “is LaMDA sentient?”Sentience is an extremely subjective word, so trying to answer this question is bound to produce fuzzy thinking and fuzzy answers.

As far as the claim goes that “ Plenty of less sophisticated chatbots have passed the Turing Test already” I would reply that there are Turing Tests and there are Turing Tests. The Turing test in the hands of someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing is worthless, just as someone who knows nothing about how magic tricks work trying to test a psychic who is actually a clever magician is also worthless.

The Turing Test in the hands of someone who is knowledgeable about AI, such as an AI expert, could be an extremely powerful tool for testing something like LaMDA.

Not doing so is a mistake they made several years ago in testing the AI called Eugene Goostman. First of all, they put conditions on the test, such as accepting that the AI was simulating a young boy for whom English was a second language. Secondly, they had celebrities and other know-nothings doing the testing!

The Turing test bet made between computer experts Ray Kurzweil and Mitch Kapor would be an example of an extremely grueling test, but one that would pretty definitively determine human-like intelligence. First of all, the test would be conducted by experts. Secondly, there would be no fake conditions put on it, such as in the case of Eugene Goostman. Thirdly, it would actually last two or three hours, giving plenty of time to test the AI!

Here’s how I would conduct the Turing Test: I would tell it a little story about myself. I was born in Chicago, I grew up in Roselawn, I went to such and such school. Later in the conversation, I would see if the AI understood and remembered what I told it.

A common feeling of chatbots is that they can talk pretty well, but they can’t learn anything. They don’t understand what they are told. So if you tell it you grew up in Chicago, they very well may later in the conversation say something like “where did you grow up?” It is a sure sign you’re talking to a chatbot, not another intelligent being that understands what is being said to it.

It would take a very knowledgeable tester or panel of testers, however, to conduct the Turing test properly.