Just a few minutes ago I nearly got false-positived on a Turing test. That is, a machine lied to me and told me it was human, and for a few seconds, I believed it.
A machine called me up to ask me to contribute to breast cancer. I asked it if it was a machine and it said it wasn't. I asked how come the background white noise was cutting in and out, and it said because the call was being quality controlled. But the conversation all seemed too glib and non-responsive. What's more I know a bit about telephony and that sounded like phony telephony to me. I was still suspicious. So I started whistling. It asked me what I had said and I said "I didn't say anything, I'm just whistling." and started whistling again. It said "Sorry, I still didn't hear you" and I said "you ARE a machine" and started carrying on in various ways.
Finally an actual bored-sounding human-sounding human came on the line.
I told him that I didn't so much mind being bothered by machines but I very much minded being bothered by machines WHICH WERE PROGRAMMED TO LIE ABOUT BEING MACHINES and that they could take their charity and stuff it.
I am not sure this is about breast cancer. I think it is likely that a political party is working out the kinks in a very sinister robo-call initiative.
I should add that I saw a presentation once at a Python enthusiasts meeting where a developer proudly bragged about software to help human callers pretend to be neighbors of the people they were calling, i.e., to lie in the service of their party. (His big customer was a Repub.lican Texas federal congressman.) He went on about how he could provide callers with plenty of local information to drop into the conversation to help them claim to be local folk and get a good hearing.
That was a couple of years ago, so I wonder if he hasn't moved up in the world now. As a local call I could be part of his field testing this. It scares me.
To test if you are talking to a machine SAY OR DO SOMETHING IRRATIONAL OR FUNNY OR RUDE. Stray from the script that the machine will keep trying to bring you back to. If you don't challenge the script it will be impressively responsive.
Once you are convinced you are talking to a robot, another thing you could do, if you have the time, is to give it perfectly normal lonely-old-person responses. Ask it its name, where it went to school, if it is married, if it has kids. The longer you keep it engaged, the less resources they will have to go after more gullible people.
Don't raise your voice, though, or you'll be bumped up to the human.
Even if it wasn't a field test for a political party, it clearly proved to me that such a thing is possible. I mean, it really did respond in plausible ways to some of the things I said to it. And it was explicitly programmed to lie about its humanity. If you find yourself being manipulated by a machine, think twice about what that means.
