Talking computer convinces users it is human

A computer has passed the Turing Test for the first time by convincing users it is human.

In an experiment by the Royal Society, the machine duped investigators into thinking it was a 13-year-old boy during a text conversation.

The Turing Test, devised by computer science pioneer Alan Turing, said that if a machine was indistinguishable from a human, then it was ''thinking''.

Cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick, who ran the study, told BBC Radio 5 live's Up All Night that the findings could shed light on why people are fooled by cybercriminals.