Watson crushes human opponents as Game One of Jeopardy match ends

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Michael Santo - Tech Buzz Examiner




Game one of the Jeopardy Man vs. Machine match is over, and the computer, or more precisely, a computer plus its software, beat the humans soundly in the second day of the extended Jeopardy match, aired Tuesday, Feb. 15.

IBM's Watson, which ended up tied with Brad Rutter at $5,000 at the halfway point of game one (Monday), and leading Ken Jennings ($2,000), won easily with a total of $35,734 vs. Rutter's $5,400 and Jennings' $2,400. The two humans managed a total of only 5 correct answers during the second day of the match.

At one point, Watson landed on a Daily Double, and said "I'll wager $6,435," Watson said in its electronic voice. To that, Alex Trebek said "I won't ask," meaning the question that all were wondering: how did Watson come up with that bet?
It didn't matter. The answer, in the "Cambridge" category, was "Sir Christopher Wren" and the software vaulted to a huge lead with $21,035.

Final Jeopardy came, and both Jennings and Rutter bet big, and won with the correct answer. Watson was wrong, but it didn't matter, as the program only bet $947.

The Final Jeopardy answer was "Its largest airport is named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle." The answer was "What is Chicago?" as the reference was to Chicago airports. "What is Toronto?" was Watson's educated guess.

The second game of the Jeopardy Man vs. Machine tournament is on Wednesday, and the winner will be the player with the highest combined total between the two games. The winner receives $1 million, second place receives $300,000, and third $200,000. IBM said all of Watson's winnings will go to charity; Jennings and Rutter plan to give away half of their amounts.

Ken Jennings set the Jeopardy record for most consecutive wins, with 74. Brad Rutter has won the most of any Jeopardy champion, $3.25 million. So far, it does not seem that Watson is impressed, or intimidated.

[Hal-9000]

my brother

[RBP]

both very cool and very scary.

[redred]

they're going to take over

[Deepsepia]

Very cool, much more impressive than playing chess well, which is just a calculation. Playing jeopardy involves knowledge, rhymes, jokes, allusions-- things that are "special" about human thinking.

And remember, what one computer can do can be implemented in other machines, fairly quickly. The world demand for computers that play great chess was never significant-- the demand for natural language understanding is massive.

The thing I'd like to know is to see inside it's algorithm-- how did it pick "Toronto" for the final jeopardy answer, for example? Thinking through that one, its that it could have been that Lester Pearson (for whom the airport is named) both served in WW II, and won the Nobel Peace Prize (although not for WWII service). So its correctly found a city with an airport that honors a hero who served in WWII. I'm not sure what Toronto's second biggest airport would be . . . and unlike the computer, a human could very quickly narrow down the field to cities with two major airports-- whose names you could be expected to know. New York would be first guess (Kennedy . . . but LaGuardia wouldn't work). Los Angeles? Has a bunch of airports, I think LAX is named after Tom Bradley. Atlanta? There's Hartsfield, and second airport is what? And then Chicago-- not many people would know who O'Hare is without looking him up, but "Midway" is famous.

[Hal-9000]

Very cool, much more impressive than playing chess well, which is just a calculation. Playing jeopardy involves knowledge, rhymes, jokes, allusions-- things that are "special" about human thinking.

And remember, what one computer can do can be implemented in other machines, fairly quickly. The world demand for computers that play great chess was never significant-- the demand for natural language understanding is massive.

The thing I'd like to know is to see inside it's algorithm-- how did it pick "Toronto" for the final jeopardy answer, for example? Thinking through that one, its that it could have been that Lester Pearson (for whom the airport is named) both served in WW II, and won the Nobel Peace Prize (although not for WWII service). So its correctly found a city with an airport that honors a hero who served in WWII. I'm not sure what Toronto's second biggest airport would be . . . and unlike the computer, a human could very quickly narrow down the field to cities with two major airports-- whose names you could be expected to know. New York would be first guess (Kennedy . . . but LaGuardia wouldn't work). Los Angeles? Has a bunch of airports, I think LAX is named after Tom Bradley. Atlanta? There's Hartsfield, and second airport is what? And then Chicago-- not many people would know who O'Hare is without looking him up, but "Midway" is famous.

Couldn't agree more...it's not just a google search through a bank of data, it's the phrasing and answering of certain types of questions.

and I agree with RBP's comment too....there is something scary about AI that goes beyond 'if this, then that' protocols.

damned sentient computers are creepy.....

[Godfather]

Yeah I would love to be given a good explanation of how this thing works. It's mind blowing. You can't just quickly 'google' these answers and give them a robot voice


Like RBP said, very cool, and kinda creepy.

[Hal-9000]

Yeah I would love to be given a good explanation of how this thing works. It's mind blowing. You can't just quickly 'google' these answers and give them a robot voice


Like RBP said, very cool, and kinda creepy.

Alex's brother backstage with an autotune machine

[Godfather]

Alex's brother backstage with an autotune machine

[RBP]

Morpheus: We don't know who struck first, us or them. But we do know it was us that scorched the sky. At the time, they were dependent on solar power. It was believed they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun.

[Hal-9000]

RBP?

Now you finally know why BSG is awesome


this is only the beginning..

[Hal-9000]

this has happened before and will happen again..

[Hal-9000]

fuck you Dave, open the pod bay doors yourself smartypants

[RBP]

BSG is awesome

[Hal-9000]

I hear that Japan has robots that....do things for you


naughty things..