Jeopardy! began its three-night stunt with champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter playing against Watson, a computer created by IBM. Thus were brains, flesh, machinery, and luck conjoined. And no, I’m not talking about host Alex Trebek.
The half-hour was eaten up by a lot of IBM info, such as the fact that Watson has a 15 trillion-byte memory capacity, and that the slab nestled between Jennings and Rutter was an avatar of Watson, which is actually a bunch of stacked servers off-stage, being kept cooled by refrigerators.
Cooled only by deodorant and their brains, Jennings and Rutter did a solid job of competing against Watson, who didn’t play like a human Jeopardy! champ. Whereas a human would usually give the correct question in a category and then “run” that category — requesting each answer for increasing amounts of money — Watson jumped all over the board. (The machine did luck out and, on its very first choice, picked a Daily Double… or was it luck?”)
My layman’s suspicion is that the chief advantage the computer may have over its human competitors has less to do with knowledge than with it being mechanically able to press the buzzer faster, in a more precisely timed way, after Trebek finishes speaking. Just a hunch.
So much time was taken up explaining Watson’s workings and plugging IBM that Monday’s game only lasted through the first round. On Tuesday, we’ll see this game’s Double and Final Jeopardy! sessions. I must say, I found Watson quite dull. On the other hand, I thought the freshly sleek Rutter, with his confident air of would-be, future-game-show-host/actor voice, kinda irritating. I’m rooting for Jennings, even though he trails Rutter and Watson, who are tied at $5,000 at this point.
What do you think about machine versus man on Jeopardy! Will you keep watching this week?
Twitter: @kentucker
It was amusing to see some of Watson’s incorrect responses, in particular when it gave the same wrong answer Jennings did just prior. I was glad to see the humans get in the game after it looked like Watson was going to dominate early in the game. I’ll definitely keep watching, but I hope on Day 3 they play a full game.
That was funny when Watson gave the same answer as Ken. Watson is so cute
My favorite part was watching the two men’s reactions to Watson, especially Ken.
that comment is going to haunt you when the robots take over the world… you wrote it on a computer, they have a record now! let me just say, oh powerful computer lords, his comments do not reflect us all… I will gladly clean your motherboard with CO2!
Hah!
I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords.
oh Derek.
So say we all!
that comment just reminds me of Kent Brockman on the Simpsons when Homer goes into space and inadvertently releases the ants. Brockman swears allegiance to our new ant overlords and vows to convince people to work in the sugar mines. very funny,
Ken, that was what Derek was going for. thanks for explaining and killing the joke. why don’t you explain Lori Rebecca’s comment.
and, now for something completely different…
I am certain that was not taken into account in the programming.
Too much talk. Not enough action. Loved when he gave the repeat answer. My wish is for Watson to say to Trebek what I always want to say. “Sure Alex. Like you really knew that answer you pompous d0bag”.
Boring, boring, boring
I liked how they showed Watson’s top 3 answers. Nice touch there.
With all 3 contestants likely knowing the majority of the answers buzzing in is the most important part of the game, I’d think Watson would have a huge advantage there.
I agree…interesting to see Watson’s top 3. Even though the IBM background seemed self-serving, it was quite informative about how computers (and humans) make connections between data to draw conclusions.
The first 10 minutes of the show was nothing but an IBM commercial. Did the IBM people even once give the slightest hint that the machine wasn’t perfect? Watching them kiss up to the machine and then see it repeat the same wrong answer Jennings gave was priceless.
Another advantage is that Watson is fed the answer electronically, instantly. Why couldn’t they fix a webcam on top of watson and he would have to scan the jeopardy answer and convert the text. The two human contestants have to read and/or listen to Trebek to most of the answer before they can submit the question.
I agree Mike – Those guy knew all the answers. It is a buzzing contest.
I think Ken needs to relax a bit and enjoy the show for what it is… entertainment. At least for the next few years until Watson gets Skynet up and running!
Jeff, you’re a fool! High-larious!
Wait, I’m confused. Where’s the computer? Isn’t that Trebek’s true form in the middle?
Epic faillllllll
LMAO skynet…good one
I’ve started my linda hamilton workout just in case I need to lead a resistance
I just kept rooting for Rutter because he looked like Don Draper. It makes it more fun for me if I see this game as Draper vs the machine.
And I thought I was the only one. No way he can win without wetting his whistle.
Watson would be in the lead if it could hear the incorrect responses of other players, since it wouldn’t have repeated Ken’s incorrect answer if it could.
Looks like we should all start preparing for the machines to take over.
I read an article in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette over the weekend about the show. (Watson was developed in part at CMU in Pittsburgh) Apparently, once they realized this issue, they eventually started feeding Watson any answers that were already used, since it doesn’t do voice recognition. That seems fair in my opinion.
Actually, the Nova special indicated that only the CORRECT answers are fed to Watson (to help contextually identify answers in the category). As far as I can tell, wrong answers given by other contestants are NOT fed to Watson, although I think they should be.
JEfromCanada, actually if I remember correctly, they also text msg the incorrect answers to the machine, since the computer did the same thing (answer incorrectly, repeating the incorrect response) in the trial runs. However, the computer may have buzzed in before the text msg could get to him. Tha NOVA special was pretty cool!
It might not have recognized it as the same answer. Jenning said “What is the 20′s”, and Watson said “What is the NINETEEN 20′s”. It apparently thought it was giving a different answer.
Not really because if Watson would have buzzed first he would have had the incorrect answer.
I also want Ken to win. But he has always been one to wait and strike in the second round. I would not count him out yet.
The way they described how Watson puts all of the information together and comes up with a response, I would imagine the NSA has already bought and even larger version.
I think it would be fair play if they would set Watson so that it could not in fact press the button any faster than the fastest press the humans could do.
During initial testing, Watson would simply buzz in electronically. To make things fair, they added an actuator piston to physically press the button. They showed that at the beginning of the show. As far as Watson’s reaction time, I think it’s fair because Watson won’t buzz in until it has determined that an answer has exceeded its “buzz in” threshold. The human players, on the other hand, may buzz in before they even know the answer… because there may be an additional second or two from the time they buzz, to the time Alex will ask for the answer.
Did anyone catch the IBM employee using a Mac?
I noticed that, too. I wonder if he was fired? You’d think he’d at least have put a sticker over the apple…
That was pretty funny, but then I remembered that IBM sold their notebook business to Lenovo, so they can probably use any brand they want now.
It’s been years since IBM made consumer PCs – Lenovo bought that business back in 2004. IBM only makes servers now.
Lot’s of IBM employees use Apple computers. They don’t have an exclusive Microsoft deal or anything. Even though they made the “PC” they are not in that business anymore. IBM focuses mostly on linux these days.
IBM=Skynet. Skynet=Terminators. Terminators=THE END OF THE WORLD
He’s more smarter than the average guy.Give him credit for that.
“more” smarter???
Mr Tucker, you’re talking about a computer that can understand the nuance of language… the fact that you consider that “dull” (did you want the avatar blue & 8′ tall???) makes me wonder if you fully understand what just happened.
Ken is an anal cancer. He doesn’t really understand.
Well, we at least know he’s “more smarter” than Erik.
Sorry I’m trolling. Couldn’t resist
Really, who cares
I would have watched it myself, but I was pooping. Thanks for the recap!
Gross.
Yuck, you poop for a 1/2 hour? LOL
Two men versus the best of IBM. I’m rooting for Ken, but can’t discount the speed at which Watson’s buzzer can be depressed. Go Ken!
I don’t think its fair that watson gets to process the question while the other two have to wait until the question is completely read. In that aspect Watson should be ready to press his buzzer sooner because he got a text, what a cheater…
Um, what? Watson hears the question at the same speed the two men do. They start processing as the words come in, same as Watson.
Most good Jeopardy! players (and Brad and Ken certainly fit the bill) will have the answer ready to go by the time Alex is finished reading the clue. When I was on the show, I did more or less the same thing they showed Watson doing: scan the text for keywords that would lead me to the correct response.
David, Watson doesn’t “hear” anything. It doesn’t do voice recognition. It get’s fed the answers.
RyanK has it right (according to Nova), someone types the answers to Watson as they are read by Trebek.
I like this stunt challenge, they should do it several times a year.
Like that Watson repeated same wrong answer
When Watson did that you can imagine all thos snobby IBM programmers tearing their hair out at their embarrassment.
I want to see Watson play wheel of fortune or the Price is Right. : ))
i want to see Watson on Wipeout. no way it could handle more than one face plant.
@billy-LOL! Love the visual!
watson on price is right… lol
while spinning the giant wheel: “i’d like to give a shout out to my girl, the ATM in the lobby of the buffalo wal-mart! i’m on TV baby!!!”
I think the Harry Potter question proved the most right now. Watson took words from the clue and went with the most relative answer to those words, in what seemed like a google search for most popular word. He didn’t buzz in, but Harry Potter came up before Voldemort which is common knowledge if you know even a little bit about HP.
I thought that was interesting, too. Watson isn’t really “understanding” the clue, but taking certain words and phrases and using an algorithm to guess at the correct answer. He’s still a long way from true A.I.
I disagree with you. I believe Watson is “understanding” the question, to the best of its ability. The fact that it had little confidence in the answers it came up with indicates that it KNEW that it didn’t understand that question well enough to even bother with a guess.
Watson is not connected to the Internet. They said quite clearly that it is self-contained and is not doing anything like Google searches.
I think it may understand the question, but what I meant to say, if you know even a little bit about HP, you obviously know he isn’t the one killing people left and right, so it shouldn’t have been an option. Granted Watson didn’t buzz in, but Harry was his top choice when it shouldn’t even have been an option. My opinion of course.
Oh and I know it wasn’t a real google search, I only meant it SEEMED like the results you would get from a google search.