Watson Bests Jeopardy Champs

In the third and final Jeopardy match between the supercomputer with a chip and  two confident champions, the outcome was uncertain until the end.  Unlike the first two days, the questions presented more of  a challenge for Watson who seemed lost and even a little intimidated.  Both Brad and Ken, who Matel could profitably make into action figures, answered question after question leaving Watson in need of a reboot.

Watson finally got its groove on Midway in and nearly ran a few of the categories.  And with some android humor, bet $367 on a daily double.  I like Watson.

And in the end, Watson prevailed with a three day total of over $77,147, over three times that of Ken and Brad.  Watson’s creators at IBM should treat the electronic wonder to a cold microbrew.  Ken and Brad did the human race proud in defeat. And I couldn’t help but feel that the two actually knew more than Watson, who perhaps had an unfair speed advantage.

For complete coverage of the tournament, see my blog posts below:

Day 2

Day 1

Computer to play Jeopardy Champs

IBM’s Watson Plays Jeopardy Day 1

The IBM supercomputer Watson  developed to play Jeopardy made its debut against two of the greatest players in the game’s history, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.  In the first of a three game exhibition, the match ended in a deadlock between Brad and Watson with Ken trailing, but on the board.

Watson got off to a quick start confidently answering question after question in a voice that sounded like Data from Star Trek The Next Generation.  Watson is clearly a Beatles fan nearly running the board category about songs by the Fab 4, answers like who is Jude and Eleanor Rigby.  However, Watson did make some mistakes once even buzzing in with the same wrong answer Ken gave, really showing the limitations of its intelligence.

After the first pause in the action Ken and Brad seemed to adopt the strategy of ringing in instantly to beat Watson to the punch which was a risky strategy that mostly paid off, given that there were only a few wrong answers delivered in the round and believe it or not Watson answered incorrectly four times, Ken twice.  I don’t think Brad made any mistakes at all.  Many of the points scored by the champions came when Watson failed to buzz in.  We saw a graphic that gave Watson’s three best choices and if it was not highly likely that one of them was correct, Watson passed.  On these questions, Ken and Brad mopped up.

Stayed tuned for a review of round two.

IBM Computer to Play Jeopardy Champs

IBM has developed a computer named Watson to compete on Jeopardy against some of the greatest players of all time, like Ken Jennings.  It’s not clear exactly how the whole thing will work.  Does the computer buzz in?  I’d think it’d always have the advantage there.  Will it know all the answers?  My guess is that it won’t.  Will it begin smoking from the ears if it misses a question?  How will it respond to Alex Trebek’s repartee?  Will it take offense and snort back a monotone reply?  What sort of biographical information will it reveal when asked to tell about itself?

Personally, I think the computer will short circuit when Alex Trebek corrects its monotone monolingual response that might contain a word or phrase in French.  Trebek, the Franco-Ontarian spares no prisoners when it comes to proper French pronunciation.  The Canadian born Trebek often chides a contestant by repeating the answer given with his native French accent.  Watson is not likely to fair well linguistically.

Imagine if Alex asks Watson to rephrase the answer as a question and it says: “I’m sorry Alex, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

And what if Watson begins to attack the computer system that runs the show, short circuiting the categories board and the buzzer system.  He’d probably turn off all the mikes and take over the PA system announcing that he will no longer tolerate insults to his intelligence.  I can imagine Watson becoming increasingly agitated and mumbling incoherent threats as his wires begin to smoke and spark setting off the alarms and sprinkler system to the horror of the audience who run for the exit doors.