IBM's Supercomputer Beats Humans at Jeopardy

By Jane McEntegart
published

The reputations of Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter are in ... danger.

IBM's 'Watson' supercomputer has been preparing for its stint on Jeopardy for a long time. In April of 2009, the company revealed its plans to build a question answering (QA) computing system – codenamed Watson – that could understand complex questions and answer with enough precision and speed to compete on the TV show Jeopardy!. IBM said that after two years of development, they planned to put Watson to the test by pitting it against human contestants on the hit show. Well, it’s been two years.

Last week, Watson headed to upstate New York to go head-to-head with Jeopardy legends Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Though filming for next month’s episode doesn’t actually start until today, Thursday saw Watson and the IBM crowd give us a sneak peek of what we can expect from the QA computing system’s time on Jeopardy!.

Engadget reports that Watson didn’t answer a single question incorrectly and by the end of the game was ahead with $4,400 (Ken had $3,400, and Brad had $1,200). This is a stark contrast to how Watson was portrayed in a video clip shot last year. Posted to IBM’s YouTube, the clip views like a blooper reel and shows Watson getting a ton of questions wrong.

You'll have to wait until next month to see Watson in action for real, but until then, check out the AP’s report, which shows Watson's practice from round yesterday.

Also embedded is the clip IBM released last year, which portrays a much less intimidating Watson.

Jane McEntegart
45 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dogman_1234
    Takes the fun out of the game. Everyone hates a know-it-all! ;)
    Reply
  • ares1214
    Ah jeez...the cloud...liquid metal...Predator Drones that select their own targets...now THIS! Skynet, here we come :P
    Reply
  • fonzy
    Elementary, my dear Watson!
    Reply
  • dogman_1234
    Alex: This great website is hosted to provide great knowledge to the IT community, as well a enthusiasts."

    *Watson flashed in*

    Alex: Watson

    Watson: What is Tom's Hardware Guide

    Alex: Correct
    Reply
  • goodguy713
    Seriously im thinking ... sky net .. where is the terminator but yea that would be so useful in so many ways my god the ram alone had to cost about a million bucks thats just nuts.. i think they said like 15 petabytes nuts.. i wonder if it could think up some useful pick up lines for chicks?
    Reply
  • jj463rd
    I would like to see politicians (lawmakers) replaced by computers and for computers to eventually have civil rights as sentient beings.
    Reply
  • goodguy713
    or should we say hal from 2001 space movie .. they must feed this thing massive amounts of data i wonder how much hardrive storage is tied into that thing..
    Reply
  • NuclearShadow
    I could swear they tried this before and it lost. Oh well good to see they improved it I guess. I'm still not amazed by it however it simply takes key words from the question and if needed uses similar words as possibilities and answers based on what it already "knows" which was put in there by people in the first place. If it was a computer capable of researching and learning on its own to expand its own knowledge then I would be impressed.

    I also have a feeling that the show was sort of geared to make it possible for it to answer. As a computer would be incapable of asking certain types of questions for example a question trying to predict a feeling. While certainly not a question worthy a Jeopardy a question like this "If Jake broke up with Jill what are likely emotions Jill would feel?" would likely make Watson stumped yet its so easy for a person to come up with every possibility.

    Instead Watson is simply a Encyclopedia that tries to calculate what is the most likely meaning of the question through a search function. So a question like "What is the name of Dorthy's dog in the wizard of Oz?"
    would be easily answered by picking up on key words in the sentence and the order that the words appear and picking the most likely answer.
    Reply
  • I like ur comment jj43rd about politcians being replaced by computers.

    Loll, interesting my friend. have super computers process all the data from districts look at all the economy , social, environmental impacts and pass the best laws based on whats best for the country. Obviously its scary having computers make decisions for us but interesting concept
    Reply
  • Kileak
    Does it know it is alive?

    Like, if your question would be:

    "The best computer at Jeopardy!"

    Would it answer: "What is Watson?" or "WHO is Watson?"
    Reply