Who really said it
Alan Turing wrote these words in Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950), page 450. The primary transcription and the sourced Wikiquote entry agree on the wording.
Last verified 9 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?
For presentations
Verified quote & credit
“Machines take me by surprise with great frequency” — Alan Turing
Can you use it?
Still under copyright (rights held by Alan Turing’s estate and/or the journal publisher; precise ownership not established here). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.
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In context
Evoking the world of Alan Turing — British mathematician and computer scientist. Theme: "Machines take me by surprise with great frequency". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
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Provenance
Machines take me
A short literal excerpt from the primary paper. The full sentence is also transcribed in the sourced Wikiquote entry.
Read the documented sourceHow we verified this
The exact English sentence appears in Turing’s 1950 paper, published after 1930. It is treated as in copyright; access to an online copy does not place it in the public domain.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Context
Section 6, objection 6, answers the claim that machines cannot surprise their users: limited human calculation can conceal their consequences.
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The author
For writers & researchers
Alan Turing. Computing Machinery and Intelligence. 1950. Mind 59, no. 236 (October 1950): 433–460, at 450.
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Machines take me by surprise with great frequency’?” Last verified 9 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/machines-take-me-by-surprise-with-great-frequency/