Media, Science

JEOPARDY! Challenge

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Just a reminder for those who may have forgotten. The JEOPARDY! Challenge is this coming week: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Check your local listings for time and channel.

This is a history making event. You won’t want to miss it. You can watch the NOVA episode “Smartest Machine on Earth”, here.

55 thoughts on “JEOPARDY! Challenge”

  6. 15 minutes to the first airing.

    PBS is reporting that folks at the taping of the first match said that it was a good contest to watch, perhaps meaning it was close and competitive.

    For those who (will) say that Watson as a machine has an unfair buzzer advantage, see this clip that shows Watson knowing the answer and being routinely beaten to the buzzer (1:20)

  7. LK,

    I read that story too and must confess my initial reaction was “It’s Skynet, Jr.!”

  8. Puzzling, I’m with you, Watson is big news, very BIG news.

    On a related note I ran across the article below a couple of days ago and I feel like this is how the explanation (told in flashback or as a short intro) to a science fiction story (or dozens of such stories actually) I have read or seen begins. None of them end well for us.

    The silicone beings are going to be given their own website so that they can ‘talk’ among themselves and share experiences and knowledge. To facilitate their helping us of course:

    “Robots to get their own internet
    By Mark Ward
    Technology correspondent, BBC News”

    “Robots could soon have an equivalent of the internet and Wikipedia.

    European scientists have embarked on a project to let robots share and store what they discover about the world.

    Called RoboEarth it will be a place that robots can upload data to when they master a task, and ask for help in carrying out new ones.

    Researchers behind it hope it will allow robots to come into service more quickly, armed with a growing library of knowledge about their human masters. …”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12400647

    Uh, huh, just keep thinking that meat-boys, just keep thinking that.

    🙂

  9. Buddha and pete,
    Now we are on to something. Watson will not be able to handle some professional trash talking. I think you two should contact the human contestants and offer your services!

  13. If Watson wins any of these tournaments the general public will chalk it up to a machine simply being able to ring a buzzer faster than a human. I think few will grasp the import of machine learning or the order of magnitude natural language advance that Watson represents. We are witnessing the birth of a disruptive technology that will fundamentally and favorably change the practice of many disciplines, perhaps led by medicine.

  15. A couple of predictions for the show:

    1. Watson will come up with a few blundered, far-off answers making fundamental understanding mistakes that a human would never make. That said, it will probably get about 90% of answers it buzzes on correct.

    2. Watson will struggle much more with the first answers in tricky categories than the later ones, although it will learn quickly based on the first one or two correct answers. If I were advising Jennings and Rutter, I would suggest that they pick the higher dollar amounts within a category early. If Watson misunderstands the category it will cost it more; and later as Watson learns the category it will benefit less.

    3. I am not sure where Watson now scores in the “winners cloud” that IBM has plotted, but the last estimates I saw still show it underperforming Jennings and Rutter.

  17. Thanks for the reminder Nal, I just added all three days to my DVR. Looking forward to it.

Comments are closed.