IBM designed a computer that could beat a chess player. While a computer-run chess program isn't new, it was an achievement for a program to best the best chess player in the world.
Now more than a decade later, IBM has set out to own the game show of trivia known as Jeopardy. IBM and the game show have teamed up to deliver a special charity edition of the show where the top two human Jeopardy players faced off against IBM's Watson supercomputer and program.
The final show off is hitting the networks tonight, but the results are in and the machine beat out the humans. It was a convincing victory, but Watson still showed clearly that it was a machine more than an advanced human neural network.
On the first night, Watson tied for the lead with a human at $5000. The second night, Watson took a commanding lead with a score of $35,734 to $10,400 for Brad Rutter and $4,800 for Ken Jennings. The lead was stunning, but Watson also faltered when it gave the question of Toronto when the answer asked for a U.S. city. Oops.
Turn on the telly if you want to see puny humans getting served by machine, or check back later for the final tally.
Find out more about Watson on IBM's YouTube channel.
UPDATE: It's over. Watson finished with $77,147, compared to $24,000 for Jennings and $21,600 for Brad Rutter. Read more about the final day here.
