IBM WATSON to take on Jeopardy

[emmjay]

IBM Research has developed a very special computing system that will be competing on Jeopardy, February 14, 15, 16, 2011 against two of the shows most esteemed contestants, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11996531

HAL is finally here, and one to the left removed, being IBM ... ha ha, I knew it!

[J_L]

It already defeated those two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFR3lOm_xhE

Humans will be replaced.. not.

[emmjay]

Artificial Intelligence sounds all so spooky and to some it is threatening. Machines have replaced man in many fields (medicine, the factory floor, energy ... just about every field you can name there is a machine taking care of business). Shutdown the grid and we all go caveman in a matter of days.

Totally replacing man, well I agree with you there. Someone has to plug the sucker in and run its AV.

[bibzgi]

Excellent topic, emmjay.

"Man vs. machine" is a folklore story with John Henry vs. the steam powered hammer as I'm sure you know.

Jeapordy (sp?) was a great show. It still runs on TV? I just have an internet-connected laptop.

That show would cause me nausea. It made me feel so stupid, ha ha.

Except for that one time in the bar many years ago.

A fellow beer drinker pal who read scientific magazines, was good at history, and kept up with the latest, would get about one in five of the questions answered right.

Sometimes there was this older weathered looking fellow who sat at the corner of the bar watching Jeapordy (sp?) who didn't chat with others, just drank, he painted to make ends meet, he would whisper all the questions right, I had to ask him how he did it, he simply said that he used to think that he knew everything.

Now this one coming up between man and computer I have to predict that computer will handily win.

Unless the answers aren't programmed into the computer.

Let us not despair. Technology and science will not pop up like monsters to take us humans over. Humans are affective, i.e., emotions and logic that cannot be broken down to just feeling and reasoning. Computers are fancy calculators designed by humans over the years.

emmjay, please post how the contest goes. Thanks.

[bibzgi]

Oh forgot to say why I felt exceptional at the bar that one time.

A Jeapardy (sp?) question came up about who was the French existentialist and I happened to know the answer and my well read bar beer drinker didn't and I felt smart for a second ha ha.

[garth]

Originally Posted by bibzgi

Excellent topic, emmjay.

"Man vs. machine" is a folklore story with John Henry vs. the steam powered hammer as I'm sure you know.

Gary Kasparov being beaten by Deep Blue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_%28chess_computer%29#Deep_Blue_versus_Ka sparov

I think it is a common misconception that an encyclopedic general knowledge equates to a high level of intelligence. All you need to be good at quizzes is the ability to remember stuff, with no emphasis on the ability to understand what it is you remember. I personally have a terrible memory, and it's a constant source of frustration to me. Some of the guys on this site are so clever it can actually be slightly intimidating some days, but we all have stuff we're good at...the trick is to figure out what those things are and then to nurture them. Knowledge of trivia is simply that, so Bibzgi don't feel dumb because you, like me, don't have every answer to every trivial question

[emmjay]

Originally Posted by bibzgi

Excellent topic, emmjay.

Unless the answers aren't programmed into the computer.
emmjay, please post how the contest goes. Thanks.

Hi Bibzgi,
I understand that there have been changes to the rules on 'cheating' for game shows since it happened on earlier game shows. Watson would have had to be screened for this and I am sure it will not have the questions to the answers preprogrammed into its memory. The programming of the system will have had many challenges to allow it to compete within Jeopardy's format, such as questions to answers, wagering and being fast on the buzzer (response time after analysis creates a delay, however a human can bypass this and take a chance on buzzing in just to buy time without having completed the analysis phase). Watson will also have to select categories that may not 'compute' well.


Humans are emotional beings, the brain being wired to deal with sadness, happiness, love, jealously, shock, hate, separation, empathy, sympathy etc., which computers do not relate to at all, thus the label 'artificial' intelligence. Heck, where is Midnight Cowboy on this...isn't this his field of expertise? IMO, intelligence has nothing to do with ones ability to retain information (I agree with Garth on this). If you are engaged in the public forum and you read a lot, you have access to a lot of information. It is how you use that information that is an indicator of your intelligence.

I will certainly report back on the results as I will be glued to the TV screen. I have also noticed that PBS has a show on Wednesday night (next week) on IBMWatson. I will be watching that too to see what went into the research and what application this venture will have on the industry as a whole.

[emmjay]

Originally Posted by emmjay

Hi Bibzgi,
I will certainly report back on the results as I will be glued to the TV screen. I have also noticed that PBS has a show on Wednesday night (next week) on IBMWatson. I will be watching that too to see what went into the research and what application this venture will have on the industry as a whole.

As I promised, for those who did not watch the show or did not catch the utube account, Watson won big. The entire $1 million that IBM won has been donated to several charities.

The application of this technology in medicine, education and science has enormous potential. The 'talking computer' is not the focus here, it is the ability for this machine to learn. MIT see this as a significant step for all the sciences.

[garth]

Thanks for posting Emmjay, i didn't see the show

[bibzgi]

Here's a reference for an interesting but long article. I read the beginning and will read the rest over time. "theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/mind-vs-machine/8386/"