IBM computer "Watson" plays Jeopardy....

[Tuckins1]

Anybody watching? I'm interested to see if it can beat the two top winning contestants (humans )

 

[Berryluv]

I was watching. It did pretty well, only a few wrong answers. I wondered if it would be able to understand all the questions. Ya know how some of the categories can be wacky.

 

[kama_s]

I love how Watson said "1920's" to one of the decade questions when it was already ruled out as an answer. I laughed so hard!

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

The geek in me thoroughly enjoyed this and I cannot wait for the next two days!

 

[Tuckins1]

I thought it was really cool too! I really like the way they show how Watson decides on an answer and whether or not he will buzz in. Really awesome technology! I can't wait to see tonight.... Watson ran game on those two yesterday, even if he did get a few wrong.

 

[elrohwen]

Go Watson!

I work for IBM and everybody here is very excited about it. We're having a Watson viewing party at a local bar on Wednesday

 

[Laila619]

It was very cool, but also a little bit well, boring or something. I wish they would have played a whole game! I think the pace of yesterday's show was too slow maybe. I'm rooting for Brad, but Watson is quite impressive!

 

[slg47]

I am watching! I like how they show his top three answers. It's definitely interesting to see what types of things trip him up!

Laila-tomorrow is double and final jeopardy, and then the next day is a full game

 

[Laila619]

Laila-tomorrow is double and final jeopardy, and then the next day is a full game

Oh, good to know slg, thanks!

 

[davi_el_mejor]

Watson, an alternate spelling of Skynet

 

[Tuckins1]

Watson, an alternate spelling of Skynet

I know, it's kind of creepy!

 

[jstarfireb]

Didn't see it, but Brad went to my high school and graduated a few years before I did. He's kind of a local celebrity.

 

[elrohwen]

Did anybody watch Jeopardy last night? Watson killed it Yay Watson!

 

[stephbolt]

I watched all three days. While it is impressive that the computer is able to generate the correct answer so frequently, on some of the questions it was way off base, which shows there are definite gaps in the language recognition. Overall, I'm not that overwhelmed by Watson's victory. In my opinion, what that comes down to is Watson being able to accurately time his button pressing based on the signal it is getting that the clue has been read. When very good Jeopardy players play each other, it comes down to the button skills. There were many questions that Watson got that Ken and Brad both knew the answer to, I would wager. But a computer isn't going to buzz in early and lock itself out, or buzz in a split second too late. So in the event that Watson knew the answer, I would say that he had the buzzer advantage at least 90% of the time, if not more.

Still, it was a fun experiment to watch.

 

[elrohwen]

I watched all three days. While it is impressive that the computer is able to generate the correct answer so frequently, on some of the questions it was way off base, which shows there are definite gaps in the language recognition. Overall, I'm not that overwhelmed by Watson's victory. In my opinion, what that comes down to is Watson being able to accurately time his button pressing based on the signal it is getting that the clue has been read. When very good Jeopardy players play each other, it comes down to the button skills. There were many questions that Watson got that Ken and Brad both knew the answer to, I would wager. But a computer isn't going to buzz in early and lock itself out, or buzz in a split second too late. So in the event that Watson knew the answer, I would say that he had the buzzer advantage at least 90% of the time, if not more.

Still, it was a fun experiment to watch.

I've heard this a lot, and I do agree that there were many questions that Ken and Brad knew, but they weren't as fast to buzz in as Watson. Watson's buzzer speed was the key reason he won by so great of a margin.

Still, I think that overlooks how truly impressive it is to have a computer able to understand human language with the level of complexity Jeopardy uses. Sure it's just a very advanced search engine, but it really is a huge advancement from where our current search technology is. Watson also learns as he goes and modifies his future answers based on what he's gotten wrong.

It took an IBM team 4 years to do this - I think it's more impressive than just buzzer speed.

Personally, I'd like to see Watson compete with Tournament level questions (the ones used this week seemed to be at a normal Jeopardy difficulty) with a slower buzzer speed that matches human abilities. I don't think Watson would blow away his competition, but I still think he would win.

 

[Tuckins1]

I didn't get to see the last 2 episodes!! I am going to have to watch them on you tube or something.

 

[stephbolt]

I watched all three days. While it is impressive that the computer is able to generate the correct answer so frequently, on some of the questions it was way off base, which shows there are definite gaps in the language recognition. Overall, I'm not that overwhelmed by Watson's victory. In my opinion, what that comes down to is Watson being able to accurately time his button pressing based on the signal it is getting that the clue has been read. When very good Jeopardy players play each other, it comes down to the button skills. There were many questions that Watson got that Ken and Brad both knew the answer to, I would wager. But a computer isn't going to buzz in early and lock itself out, or buzz in a split second too late. So in the event that Watson knew the answer, I would say that he had the buzzer advantage at least 90% of the time, if not more.

Still, it was a fun experiment to watch.

I've heard this a lot, and I do agree that there were many questions that Ken and Brad knew, but they weren't as fast to buzz in as Watson. Watson's buzzer speed was the key reason he won by so great of a margin.

Still, I think that overlooks how truly impressive it is to have a computer able to understand human language with the level of complexity Jeopardy uses. Sure it's just a very advanced search engine, but it really is a huge advancement from where our current search technology is. Watson also learns as he goes and modifies his future answers based on what he's gotten wrong.

It took an IBM team 4 years to do this - I think it's more impressive than just buzzer speed.

Personally, I'd like to see Watson compete with Tournament level questions (the ones used this week seemed to be at a normal Jeopardy difficulty) with a slower buzzer speed that matches human abilities. I don't think Watson would blow away his competition, but I still think he would win.

I don't disagree with you that the system they built was very impressive - it was the first thing I said . I just felt like for the purposes of competition the design was flawed, but it's hard to fix it because a computer can't have nerves to affect its reaction speed. I guess it was fed some sort of electronic signal when the clue was finished being read so for that purpose it was probably impossible for it to buzz in early as well.

I would love to be able to see more about the algorithms the system is using to parse the clues - it seemed the style of the question really affected how the system responded. One example I can think of from last night is the "Actors who Directed" (not the right name, but hopefully you know what I mean) category. The clues were only the name of the movie(s). Watson seemed to have trouble taking that info alone and coming up with an answer. Same with the Harry Potter clue from day 1 - there was almost too much info in the clue in that case so Watson came up with the most likely answer based on all the terms in the question.

 

[elrohwen]

I watched all three days. While it is impressive that the computer is able to generate the correct answer so frequently, on some of the questions it was way off base, which shows there are definite gaps in the language recognition. Overall, I'm not that overwhelmed by Watson's victory. In my opinion, what that comes down to is Watson being able to accurately time his button pressing based on the signal it is getting that the clue has been read. When very good Jeopardy players play each other, it comes down to the button skills. There were many questions that Watson got that Ken and Brad both knew the answer to, I would wager. But a computer isn't going to buzz in early and lock itself out, or buzz in a split second too late. So in the event that Watson knew the answer, I would say that he had the buzzer advantage at least 90% of the time, if not more.

Still, it was a fun experiment to watch.

I've heard this a lot, and I do agree that there were many questions that Ken and Brad knew, but they weren't as fast to buzz in as Watson. Watson's buzzer speed was the key reason he won by so great of a margin.

Still, I think that overlooks how truly impressive it is to have a computer able to understand human language with the level of complexity Jeopardy uses. Sure it's just a very advanced search engine, but it really is a huge advancement from where our current search technology is. Watson also learns as he goes and modifies his future answers based on what he's gotten wrong.

It took an IBM team 4 years to do this - I think it's more impressive than just buzzer speed.

Personally, I'd like to see Watson compete with Tournament level questions (the ones used this week seemed to be at a normal Jeopardy difficulty) with a slower buzzer speed that matches human abilities. I don't think Watson would blow away his competition, but I still think he would win.

I don't disagree with you that the system they built was very impressive - it was the first thing I said . I just felt like for the purposes of competition the design was flawed, but it's hard to fix it because a computer can't have nerves to affect its reaction speed. I guess it was fed some sort of electronic signal when the clue was finished being read so for that purpose it was probably impossible for it to buzz in early as well.

I would love to be able to see more about the algorithms the system is using to parse the clues - it seemed the style of the question really affected how the system responded. One example I can think of from last night is the "Actors who Directed" (not the right name, but hopefully you know what I mean) category. The clues were only the name of the movie(s). Watson seemed to have trouble taking that info alone and coming up with an answer. Same with the Harry Potter clue from day 1 - there was almost too much info in the clue in that case so Watson came up with the most likely answer based on all the terms in the question.

Yeah, a computer will never compete exactly like a human. I do hope IBM is able to turn the technology to something "useful" like they say they will.

I'm fascinated by the algorithms too. Watson definitely doesn't handle tricky word questions or two part questions well. DH and I were saying that Watson probably couldn't get the category they had last week where you had to take a clue, answer it, then subtract one letter from the answer to actually answer the category (like the question might provide you with "more", but because the category is animals you determine the answer must be "mare").

I work in the part of the company that physically made Watson's parts and they don't even tell us how enough about how they programmed it I've learned more form CNN than from work.

 

[kenny]

I think the disadvantage humans have is the relatively long time it takes to move the muscles to push the button, not the electrical impulses moving more slowly in human nerves than computer wires.

 

[elrohwen]

I think the disadvantage humans have is the relatively long time it takes to move the muscles to push the button, not the electrical impulses moving more slowly in human nerves than computer wires.

I think Steph meant that the computer wouldn't be nervous which could effect reaction speed of a human competitor - not that the physical nerves themselves are slowing people down.

 

[stephbolt]

I think the disadvantage humans have is the relatively long time it takes to move the muscles to push the button, not the electrical impulses moving more slowly in human nerves than computer wires.

I think Steph meant that the computer wouldn't be nervous which could effect reaction speed of a human competitor - not that the physical nerves themselves are slowing people down.

Yup, I was talking about the computer not being nervous (or having any other emotions affecting their game play).

 

[kenny]

Good point.

 

[kenny]

Ken Jennings speaks up about losing to a box.

http://www.slate.com/id/2284721/pagenum/all/

 

[Clairitek]

Ken Jennings speaks up about losing to a box.

http://www.slate.com/id/2284721/pagenum/all/

Really interesting article. Also interesting to see that his feelings on the advantage of Watson's buzzer skills match some of the things said in this thread. I hadn't been aware before that one of Jennings' strategies that helped him beat so many people was improving his buzzer skills. Apparently he practiced with a fake buzzer at home for 4 years before going on the show. Goes to show that its not just having a wealth of knowledge that gives you the win.

I was impressed with the voice recognition software that IBM developed and Watson's ability to comb through his database to find the most appropriate answer. I did, however, get pretty bored after about 2 minutes watching him school the human competition. I did feel that the questions were more simple than usual (either that or I've learned a lot since I last watched Jeopardy). I suppose since I am not into computers, programming, or understanding how it all works it didn't blow me away because I don't get all of the intricacies of making a system like that and what makes it special.

 

[elrohwen]

I was impressed with the voice recognition software that IBM developed and Watson's ability to comb through his database to find the most appropriate answer. I did, however, get pretty bored after about 2 minutes watching him school the human competition. I did feel that the questions were more simple than usual (either that or I've learned a lot since I last watched Jeopardy). I suppose since I am not into computers, programming, or understanding how it all works it didn't blow me away because I don't get all of the intricacies of making a system like that and what makes it special.

Watson doesn't actually have a voice recognition system - he gets the questions as texts at the same time as the human competitors. Makes it a little less impressive, for sure. Voice recognition would've really taken it to the next level I think.