You know, writing a chatbot that could pass the turing test might actually be very easy if you make it act like a deranged Internet troll.
To make a chatbot that imitates someone specific might be easier still; I wish no ill-will to TempleOS (formerly Losethos), but I think I could quite easily write a bot that was indistinguishable from him.
Writing an RMS chatbot would be exceedingly easy. Now that I think about it, it's entirely possible that someone at MIT already did that and I fell for it by arguing with it on the csail-related list last month.
That's a standard trick. It doesn't make it "easy", but it works to muddy the issue. There are annual turing test competitions and some bots use this trick. They're not the absolute best, but they do well.
To make a chatbot that imitates someone specific might be easier still; I wish no ill-will to TempleOS (formerly Losethos), but I think I could quite easily write a bot that was indistinguishable from him.