Jeopardy! to Feature IBM Supercomputer as Contestant

[Rob Williams]

What works at IBM, but isn't an employee? Stumped? A supercomputer, of course! Quiz questions like these are what we'll see in February, when one of America's most-loved game shows, Jeopardy!, features one of its most unique contestants ever, "Watson". No, it's not a human being, but rather the result of IBM's accomplishments in more realistic artificial intelligence.

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Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!

 

[Optix]

Umm...I see a problem with this and you already mentioned it.

Artificial intelligence is more about what to do in a certain situation based on what is currently happening, not grabbing pre-programmed answers from a database. Why not just download Wikipedia into the thing? Sure, some may be fluff since anybody who two brain cells can author/edit a Wikipedia article but more often than not it is accurate.

I'm curious to see how this will pan out.

EDIT: The typical link to the article isn't inserted into the post. People can click on the Jeopardy image and be taken there but if you're like me, OCD demands consistency.

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

umm...ok then.

 

[Rob Williams]

Umm...I see a problem with this and you already mentioned it.

Artificial intelligence is more about what to do in a certain situation based on what is currently happening, not grabbing pre-programmed answers from a database. Why not just download Wikipedia into the thing? Sure, some may be fluff since anybody who two brain cells can author/edit a Wikipedia article but more often than not it is accurate.

I agree, and the problem is, I'm not quite sure how this is going to work. If I ask you a question and you don't know the answer, you are not just going to come up with it out of thin air, so what's different here? Watson would have to have a database of some sort with all of this information, and if that's the case, then sure, answers MIGHT be formed out of that with the help of it's "brain".

It's impressive any way you shake it. I look forward to this airing.

EDIT: The typical link to the article isn't inserted into the post. People can click on the Jeopardy image and be taken there but if you're like me, OCD demands consistency.

Doh. I'm not so alert at 5:44AM :-(

 

[Tharic-Nar]

Or... the whole thing is a publicity stunt and it's rigged...

Nah, they'd never do such a thing...

 

[OriginalJoeCool]

So this Watson may just be "cheating". Either you know the answer or you don't.

This reminds, I wonder what the actual capacity of the human brain is. My brain sure can be stingy with what it chooses to store. There must be some limit.

 

[On_Wisconsin]

I'm all for it if one of the contestants is Darrell Hammond doing his Sean Connery impression