Jeopardy: Rise of the Machines

[LitmusDragon]

I think this is neat, and the Watson software is very impressive and a little scary; clearly a Watson-type computer could replace a lot of human jobs, including my own technical support position (though not for some years I expect). However I agree that the buzzer issue should have been worked out after the test matches that were conducted before the air time. There is always a delay in human reaction, and a computer is not held up by reaction time. It's really not fair.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Technically Watson has a certain reaction time too, he has to analyse the question, search his database and calculate how sure he is of his answer before buzzing in (since sometimes when he knows he doesn't know, he doesn't buzz in), insofar he's actually very similar to a human's thought process in that situation, he's just really damn fast at that.

 

[Pegaritaville]

Yeah, his 2nd best answers were often way off the mark.

And sometimes his first answers are as well. When Watson's wrong, he can really miss the mark.


It's been interesting, but I've been a little disappointed by the match so far. I'd rather they would have stuck to the regular format. And Watson's advantage in ringing in bothers me. But at least they did away with the annoying "Jeopardy Clue Crew" for the matches.

 

[Yoda]

Technically Watson has a certain reaction time too, he has to analyse the question, search his database and calculate how sure he is of his answer before buzzing in (since sometimes when he knows he doesn't know, he doesn't buzz in), insofar he's actually very similar to a human's thought process in that situation, he's just really damn fast at that.

An article I read mentioned 3 seconds as the upper limit on how long it take Watson to come up with its guesses. I don't know what its quickest answers are though. But at home ignoring Trebek's reading, I usually come up with answers much quicker than that. Or at least "know IF I know" quicker than that.

Anyway, my point is that it's very possible that Ken and Brad "know" the answers before Watson, which makes the buzzer advantage even more sad.

 

[tharpdevenport]

(AFP) - An IBM computer creamed two human champions on the popular US television game show "Jeopardy!" on Wednesday in a triumph of artificial intelligence.

"I for one welcome our new computer overlords," contestant Ken Jennings -- who holds the "Jeopardy!" record of 74 straight wins -- cheekily wrote on his answer screen at the conclusion of the much-hyped three-day showdown.

(LINK)


How about a super mega computer death match, with this one and the Deep Blue chess computer from 1997 (of course upgraded)?

 

[Marc]

(AFP) - An IBM computer creamed two human champions on the popular US television game show "Jeopardy!" on Wednesday in a triumph of artificial intelligence.

"I for one welcome our new computer overlords," contestant Ken Jennings -- who holds the "Jeopardy!" record of 74 straight wins -- cheekily wrote on his answer screen at the conclusion of the much-hyped three-day showdown.

(LINK)


How about a super mega computer death match, with this one and the Deep Blue chess computer from 1997 (of course upgraded)?

Wouldn't achieve much - they were systems designed to work on difference facets of AI. Playing chess requies intelligence and a great deal of strategy and I guess pattern recognition. Watson was designed to handle the take of understanding "natural language" and had to deduce the actual intent of the question and come up with the answer which also required knowledge but knowledged couldn't be just simply applied.

 

[Checkmate]

^^
Buzzer or not, Watson is (almost) as good at Jeopardy as two of the best humans ever to play it, and that's impressive on it's own.

Oh it's impressive, no doubt. I just don't know why they'd give it such an obvious superhuman advantage when it's pretty tangential to what they're trying to achieve anyway. Watson's going to win this thing and it's going to lessen their pretty awesome achievement because you could argue that it's cheating.

It doesn't need the advantage. It could probably win on its own merits.

How is it "cheating?" I haven't seen the last episode, but the first one showed that it has to use a buzzer just like everyone else. They built a robotic buzzer-presser for him, and when they demonstrated it, he pressed it at a believable speed. The other two beat him at pressing it a few times, too.

 

[What's his face]

I wonder what Watson will spend its prize money on. Let's hope it's not an evil robot death army *crosses fingers*

 

[tharpdevenport]

His choice of donation.

The Evil Super Computer Army Charity, perhaps.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Nobody welcoming our new AI overlords yet?

 

[tomalak301]

Loved how that ended. Not only the Computer overlords comments, but the bunny ears, Ken going behind Watson, and just both Ken and Brad taking it in stride. Great stuff.

 

[ATimson]

Technically Watson has a certain reaction time too, he has to analyse the question, search his database and calculate how sure he is of his answer before buzzing in (since sometimes when he knows he doesn't know, he doesn't buzz in), insofar he's actually very similar to a human's thought process in that situation, he's just really damn fast at that.

He does have a reaction time; however, he also has a head start (since he gets the questions directly instead of needing to take several seconds to read the board).

 

[FordSVT]

Technically Watson has a certain reaction time too, he has to analyse the question, search his database and calculate how sure he is of his answer before buzzing in (since sometimes when he knows he doesn't know, he doesn't buzz in), insofar he's actually very similar to a human's thought process in that situation, he's just really damn fast at that.

He does have a reaction time; however, he also has a head start (since he gets the questions directly instead of needing to take several seconds to read the board).

But all of the contestants do need to wait until the question has been finished being delivered verbally before ringing the buzzer.

In fact, one problem that people have, and Watson never has, is hitting the buzzer too early, locking themselves out. In the first episode, contestant rang in early eight or nine times, even though they (possibly) did know the right answer. Ken J. credits his "button discipline" as one of the main factors that allowed him to win so many episodes. He said that many times his competitors knew as much as he did, he was just able to ring in fast and accurately, while they too often got over-eager and locked themselves out.

 

[Trekker4747]

Tonight was the first of a multi-part Jeopardy game pitting the show's two all-time greats (Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter) against "Watson", an IBM supercomputer developed for years specifically to play the game (apparently his word recognition software is considered a big deal).

The first round ended with Watson and Rutter tied at $5000, and Ken at around $2000. Notably, though, it seems Watson isn't given the incorrect answers given by his competitors (or if he is, he malfunctioned badly): for one question, he repeated Ken's incorrect answer, and otherwise he would be ahead.

Get ready for Skynet, everybody.

Is it possible for a syndicated game show that's been on for 50 years to jump the shark?

 

[FordSVT]

^That's silly.