Artificial Intelligences (AIs) are a trope in science fiction, but an article in the Guardian mentions an upcoming contest where some designers of "artificial conversational entities" will compete to see if their AIs can pass the famous Turing test.

"The six computer programs taking part in the test are called Alice, Brother Jerome, Elbot, Eugene Goostman, Jabberwacky and Ultra Hal. Their designers will be competing for an 18-carat gold medal and $100,000 offered by the Loebner Prize in Artificial Intelligence."

The test involves whether questioners can tell whether they are communicating with a person or a machine. From the sample shown, it looks to me like the AIs have got the A part down, but the I needs work. I did love their names, though.