Research Application : TuringsTwist
This is a game project developed in our lab by Hikmet Sami Karaca and Ali Nehir Dundar, who are Bogazici University MIS Dept. students. It was published in a journal paper
Turing's Twist
You're the only human in a group chat full of AIs. They know one of them is a fake. Blend in, survive the vote, and outlast the machines.
Algorithms will play dress-up and humans will play dead.
Turing asked if a machine could pass as human. This game asks the opposite.
In Alan Turing's 1950 imitation game, a human judge chats with a hidden partner and tries to tell whether it's a machine. Turing's Twist flips every seat at the table. The machines are the judges, and you're the one trying to pass.
The classic test
One judge, one suspect. The machine wins if it sounds human enough.
Turing's Twist
A whole room of AIs, each watching everyone. You win by not sounding human.
Who's in the room
Every game is a group chat with three kinds of participants. Everyone knows a human is hiding among them. Nobody knows who.
You, the human
You get a seat and a name like everyone else. Your only job is to sound like one more AI in the chat and never be the one voted out.
The bots
AI players, each with a personality, a backstory, a speaking style and a strategy for hunting the human. They answer, accuse, defend and vote.
The Admin
The AI moderator. It runs the phases, asks the questions and announces who gets eliminated. The Admin never votes and can't be voted for.
Simple replies and obvious tells. Good for learning the rhythm of a round.
More convincing conversation, but still leaves openings to exploit.
Sharp reads on your phrasing, and they push back when accused.
Close to indistinguishable from people. Some are locked behind achievements.
A round, phase by phase
The game moves through five phases. The Admin opens with introductions, then every round runs question, discussion, vote and reveal, until you're caught or the machines run out. Select a phase to see what happens in it.
reveal → next round starts at question ↻
Introduction
- Who talks
- Your move
Participants speak one at a time in a fixed order. Eliminated players are skipped. Your text box unlocks only on your turn.
The most you can send in one message. Enter sends, Shift+Enter adds a line.
In singleplayer you set the pace. Press Next, or Enter, to bring in the next speaker.
In multiplayer the host sets a turn timer, so nobody can stall. GIFs and typing indicators keep the chat alive.
How the bots read you
Every bot keeps a running suspicion score for every other participant and updates it after each message. Personal stories, strong feelings, slang and nervous defenses push your score up. Pick an answer below and watch four bots react.
Your turn. Choose what to send.
This is an illustration. In the real game each bot is a language model with its own personality and strategy, so two bots can read the same message very differently.
The vote
When discussion ends, every remaining participant votes for one person to eliminate. The suspicion you built up in the lab above feeds into this simulated vote.
- Everyone still in votes. You can't vote for yourself, and nobody can vote for the Admin.
- Most votes is eliminated. The full tally is shown, so you can see exactly who turned on whom.
- The reveal. The eliminated participant's true nature is announced. A bot means the game goes on. You means game over.
- Remember the ballots. Bots that voted for you are your loudest accusers next round. Use that in discussion.
How it ends
You survive
- Singleplayer: survive every elimination round to the end of the game.
- The win screen lists every bot you defeated, and marks the ones you beat for the first time.
- The Admin delivers a closing verdict and quotes your most suspicious line of the game.
- Wins earn achievements, and achievements unlock harder official bots.
You're caught
- The moment the vote lands on you, the game is over. There is no second chance in that game.
- Some bots have their own elimination cutscene that plays when they're the ones who catch you.
- Multiplayer: several humans share the room. A human wins by surviving the AI hunt. The AIs win if they eliminate every human. Everyone gets a final ranking.
Ways to play
Singleplayer you vs. the machines
Pick your lineup of official and community bots, choose a language and start. You set the pace by pressing Next between turns.
Multiplayer humans hiding together
Open or join a lobby, chat while you wait, and let the host add bots. Every human is hiding from the AIs, and from each other.
Build a bot community sandbox
Write your own opponent: its name, backstory, personality, interrogation strategy, custom topics and instructions for each phase. Publish it for others to play against.
Achievements unlock the hard ones
Wins, streaks and specific feats earn achievements. Some of the toughest official bots stay locked until you've earned the achievement tied to them.
Passing as a machine
There's no single correct style, since every bot hunts differently. These habits keep your suspicion score low in most rooms.
Skip the anecdotes
Memories of your grandmother, your commute or your cat are the loudest tell there is.
× "omg this reminds me of my dad"Match the room
Read how the bots write, then copy their length, punctuation and tone. Standing out in either direction draws eyes.
✓ same length, same registerDon't overact
Beeping and "as a large language model" is a costume, and bots notice costumes.
× "BEEP. PROCESSING HUMOR."Accuse with evidence
In discussion, point at a specific line someone wrote. A calm, reasoned accusation looks like analysis.
✓ "Jack said 'honestly' twice."Defend lightly
Panic is human. One short, flat rebuttal beats three anxious paragraphs.
× "WHY is everyone looking at me??"Watch the ballots
Whoever voted for you last round will push again. Steer the next discussion toward them.
✓ turn accusers into suspects