Scholars Mind

The Machine That Was a Man

In 1770, a Hungarian engineer announced a startling invention: a machine capable of playing chess. This “Mechanical Turk” toured the world, impressing everyone from Benjamin Franklin to Edgar Allan Poe. There was just one problem: it was not an early example of AI, but a hoax, operated by a chess master hidden within. Companies today may still take a similar approach—known as “Wizard of Oz” testing—to test user response before production. Discuss with your team: is it okay to mislead users during product testing in order to make the finished versions of those products better?

Key concepts

Wizard of Oz Testing
A real design method: the user is told the system is automatic, while a person behind the screen quietly works the controls — so a company can watch how people behave before building the thing that would behave that way.

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Every work — at a glance

  • The Mechanical Turk — Wolfgang von Kempelen (automaton)

    A 1770 chess-playing automaton — a turbaned figure seated at a cabinet — that beat opponents from Benjamin Franklin to Napoleon while a hidden human chess master slid along a rail inside, working the arm.

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What to know

  1. 01
    The hoax and the method share one trick: hide a human, and let the audience believe the machine is thinking. Two and a half centuries apart the mechanism is identical — what changed is the purpose, and whether anyone is told afterwards.

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Across subjects

The method's name is borrowed: in L. Frank Baum's 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' the terrifying wizard turns out to be an ordinary man working levers behind a

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

A man pretending to be a machine pretending to be a man. The hoax still made thinking machines thinkable, inspiring Babbage — and Amazon named its hidden-labour marketplace after it. Is it fair to mislead a user to build them a better product, or is 'for your own good' how manipulation always introduces itself?

Practice — a sample

SOCThe Mechanical Turk is to a pure hoax as Wizard of Oz testing is to —

  • A A finished robot
  • B A magic trick
  • C A research method
  • D A failed machine
  • E A sales pitch

Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.

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