How smart are robots getting?

Franz Broseph looked like any other diplomacy player for Claes de Graaff. The handle was a joke - Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I is reborn as a brother online - but it was the kind of humor people who play Diplomacy tend to appreciate. The game is a classic, loved by the likes of John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger, combining military strategy and political intrigue as it recreates World War I: players negotiate with allies, enemies and everyone in between as they plan how their armies will move across 20th century Europe.

When Franz Broseph joined a 20-player online tournament at the end of August, he courted other players, lying to them and ultimately betraying them. He finished in first place.

Mr. de Graaff, a chemist living in the Netherlands, finished fifth. He had spent nearly 10 years playing Diplomacy, both online and in face-to-face tournaments around the world. He didn't realize until it was revealed several weeks later that he had lost to a machine. Franz Broseph was a bot.

"I was flabbergasted," said Mr. de Graaff, 36. “It felt so authentic – so realistic. He could read my texts and converse with me and make plans that were mutually beneficial – that would get us both moving forward. He also lied to me and betrayed me, as the best players often do. and other leading universities, Franz Broseph is part of the new wave of online chatbots that are rapidly moving machines into new territories.

When chatting with these bots, you may feel like you are chatting with another person. It can give the impression, in other words, that machines have passed a test that is supposed to prove their intelligence.

ImageAlan Turing, a British mathematician, proposed in 1950...