memes

I wasn't clear enough. Turing was wondering if machines can think. But there is no sufficiently clear definition of the word "thinking" that could be used to answer the question.

If you want to know if LLMs are AI, you can just look up the definition of AI and check if LLMs meet the criteria. You cannot do that to answer if they are thinking.

So let's take a task, which we agree takes thinking, and see if a machine can do it as well as a human. If it can, then the machine must be able to think. That's how you think as a scientist.

The test itself is similar to modern, placebo-controlled medical trials. That was not SOTA at the time, showing how clear thinking he was. Perhaps the WP entry on RCTs helps to understand how logic and reason may be applied in the face of uncertainty.

But of course the test revolves around the definition of a word. Such definitions are fundamentally arbitrary. That means that the test itself is arbitrary. Science is rarely concerned with colloquial definitions. Usually you come up with some sort of operational definition that you use for the purpose of inquiry. The only question is, if that definition is useful.