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!
5 Fun Tidbits About IBM's Watson Supercomputer
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!
Meet Watson, Jeopardy's IBM Supercomputer Contestant!
Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter go up against an IBM computer named Watson tonight, in the second of three episodes airing Feb. 14-16, 2011. Watson tied with Brad Rutter last night, and in case you missed it during the opening, check out this behind-the-scenes look at how Watson processes clues and information. Will he take home the win? Tune in to find out!
The Jeopardy Supercomputer Is Winning
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.
