The Turing test goes back to the mathematician Alan Turing, who described it in 1950 as the “imitation game”. A person holds written conversations with a human and a machine; if they cannot reliably tell which is the machine, the test is considered passed. Today's language models often hold very human-sounding conversations, but the test only says something about convincing language, not about understanding or reliability.
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) refers to a hypothetical AI system that can handle a broad range of intellectual tasks at human level and flexibly transfer what it has learned to new areas. Today's systems perform well on many tasks but still show limitations, for instance in reliability. There is no generally accepted definition or way of measuring it, and whether and when AGI will be achieved is disputed among experts.
Conversational AI covers technologies that enable computers to hold dialogues in natural language, either in writing via chat or spoken via voice assistants. Modern systems are usually based on large language models that understand requests, take the conversation history into account and formulate suitable replies. Organisations use them in customer service, for booking appointments or for internal help desks. Reliable knowledge, clear limits and a handover to people when the AI cannot help are essential.
Anthropomorphism is the tendency to attribute human qualities such as feelings, intentions or understanding to machines. With chatbots this comes naturally because they write fluently and personally. It can make interaction more pleasant but carries risks: people may trust answers too much or share sensitive information. Clear notices that users are dealing with AI and honest statements about its limits help counter this.
