In order for artificially intelligent machines to learn, more and more we must express ourselves in a reduced language and must simplify the complex range of human expression into something AI can understand, writes David Berry.

The imitation game, better known as the Turing test, was developed by Alan Turing in 1950. As one of the early pioneers of computers, he argued that if a computer could imitate a human successfully, it might thereby be thought of as intelligent. Whilst it remains a controversial test - after all, merely imitating a human does not necessarily prove that the computer is intelligent - it is certainly the case that the Turing Test has set a standard by which we might measure artificially intelligent computers. For example, it helps if computers can talk to us as if they were human in order that we can use them as useful assistants in our everyday lives. But it also implies a moment of deception, the computer, in order for us to trust it to understand what we mean, is often designed to appear more human than it actually is.