In case you missed the fun, IBM's Watson took home Jeopardy's top prize in this week's battle of man vs. machine. We already got a firsthand account of what it's like to compete against a computer from Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings, and now you can see for yourself how Watson dominated the game (and Ken's hilarious submission to the "computer overlords") in this Final Jeopardy clip!
Last night, IBM's Watson super computer beat the humans in three rounds of head to head action. Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings recently connected with quiz show fans during an online live chat on The Washington Post's website, giving an insider's look at what it's like to play a game of trivia against a computer. We've already given you a peek at how IBM's Watson processes information, and now Ken Jennings gives readers the scoop on his performance with these interesting facts as extracted from The Washington Post live interview. Check it out, then be sure to head to the interview page for more!
Jeopardy royalty Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter are back in the game after netting millions in winnings, and they're facing their toughest opponent yet — a computer. IBM's $1 million Watson computer is scheduled to compete against the duo in prime time next month, but in the first round of practice, the computer won. In fact, Watson didn't answer any questions incorrectly, though it did stay silent during one full category.
The computer itself aims to understand language as we speak it with all of its "subtleties, irony, and words with multiple meanings." Scientists loaded the computer with 200 million pages of text that it then analyzes to understand speech patterns. So to play Jeopardy, the computer processes each question and then using cues like keywording and "statistical paraphrasing" to come up with an answer. It will only ring in to answer if it reaches a percentage of certainty that it has the correct answer.
While the computer won the practice round beating Jennings by $1,000, none of the three contestants answered a question incorrectly.
Next week, IBM will be introducing their first ever "Virtual Mirror" kiosk at the National Retail Federation in NYC. What it does is take a digital photo (of the shopper) and scan in various makeup and hair coloring products that they may be interested in purchasing. Without having to actually try the makeup on you are guaranteed true colors and an accurate replica of your face. The EZ Face virtual mirror is already being used by Super-Pharm, one of the biggest drugstores in Israel, and will hit large US retailers sometime this year.
With virtual dressing rooms at a number of H&M stores and an Adidas shop in Paris utilizing virtual shopping mirrors, it's no surprise that this kind of technology is catching on. What do you think? Would you ever trust something like this to give you a precise makeup portrayal?
