IBM Watson Hits Jeopardy to Destroy All Humans

By Marcus Yam
published

It's not self aware... yet.

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.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
62 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dogman_1234
    The human brain is still, and always be, the greatest processor in the world.
    Reply
  • tripplenipple1224
    Lol at the fact that "The Game" is highlighted in my bing ads in this article
    Reply
  • jprahman
    Skynet is here!!!!!!!!!!!
    As soon as this thing becomes self aware we're all screwed!
    Reply
  • jhansonxi
    Computers are more efficient and logical than humans and will eventually replace them in all occupations except that of politician - for that is the only job that requires a lack of logic.
    Reply
  • abottig
    dogman_1234The human brain is still, and always be, the greatest processor in the world.
    Tell Ray Kurzweil that.
    Reply
  • dogman_1234
    abottigTell Ray Kurzweil that.
    While they may be more 'intelligent' than the human brain, there is other (logics) that we are more capable of processing: such as emotions, right-wrong, inter/intrapersonal processing.
    Reply
  • liveonc
    If "it" is given hands, can it play Crysis, & when "Skynet" takes over, will Terminator be able to find a Human Technician to fix it when it has a BSOD?
    Reply
  • distortion
    Strictly speaking Toronto isn't wrong. There are at least 3 Torontos in the US in SD, IN, and KS. The question doesn't ask for a uniquely US city name.
    Reply
  • jprahman
    9273112 said:
    will Terminator be able to find a Human Technician to fix it when it has a BSOD?

    It doesn't need a technician to fix the BSODs because it doesn't run Windows.
    Reply
  • funnyman06
    jprahmanIt doesn't need a technician to fix the BSODs because it doesn't run Windows.
    What about a kernel panic?
    Reply