The Imitation Game is the most successful Interface Metaphor in general-purpose, conversational AI.
However, it conceals a basic contradiction: it is a human-machine interface, which instead disguises itself as a human-human interface.
From an ergonomic point of view, the Imitation Game is part of the tradition of skeumorphic interfaces, which imitate a tool-in Greek skeuos (σκεῦος), because its shape-in Greek morphḗ (μορφή)-remembers a function. For example, in a personal computer interface, a pencil icon allows us to write, and an eraser icon allows us to erase.
In graphical computer systems in the 1980s, dominated by the so-called “desk metaphor,” skeuomorphic design is used for the many icons used in graphical user interfaces: folders, documents, baskets, and so on.
Virtual skeuomorphs can also be auditory, such as the sound of the shutter click made by camera phones when a photo is taken. Or the sound of paper crumpling when a document is trashed. But with the Imitation Game, the interface is about humans themselves: the machine takes the form of humans to simulate their ability to express themselves and reason.
This step can be extremely dangerous. No one can be fooled by an icon simulating a folder, or a sound simulating a photographic click.
However, we all potentially risk being deceived by a voice that is indistinguishable from a human voice, develops lifelike speech, and is emitted from lips that are part of a realistic human face.
The risk particularly affects children, people who are impressionable or unfamiliar with technology, and people with mental disabilities. A protective barrier must be raised with respect to the Imitation Game, taking into account its ability to fuel aberrations on psychological, legal, educational and anthropological levels.
Italiano