I can't wait to see this

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106121-Jeopardy-to-Pit-Man-Against-IBM-A-I-for-1-Million

Quote :

"Jeopardy has announced that it'll be pitting two of its best contestants ever against one that isn't even human in an upcoming series of three episodes. IBM's Watson, an artificial intelligence program, will go up against the best trivia-answering humans that the world has to offer for a prize of $1 million. The competition has been in the works for four years simply because of its nature. Jeopardy's contestants often answer questions posed in an abnormal manner, with puns and wordplay, so creating a computer that can analyze these questions in the same way and formulate an answer within seconds was a seemingly impossible task. However, Watson has recently been defeating former Jeopardy contestants in more than 50 closed tests on a regular basis. IBM hasn't shared the software's record, but it speaks volumes that the company is confident enough to put Watson up against the best performing contestants in Jeopardy history. IBM's research team says it "believes that Watson is ready for this challenge based on its ability to rapidly comprehend what the Jeopardy clue is asking, analyze the information it has access to, come up with precise answers, and develop an accurate confidence in its response." Watson will face Brad Rutter, the record holder for Jeopardy winnings with over $3.2 million, and Ken Jennings, who holds the record for Jeopardy's longest winning streak at 74 days. The AI be represented by some kind of on-screen avatar, hopefully a Terminator bot. Watson is debuting on Jeopardy because it's one of the "benchmarks of ultimate knowledge," says executive producer Harry Friedman. These mega-geniuses are sure to put Watson on the grindstone. Watson is part of IBM's DeepQA project that strives to build computers that can operate on human terms. In other words, artificial intelligence on the level of Star Trek's computer. The goal is to infuse natural human language and understanding into the massive information storage capacity of a computer. The Jeopardy man vs. machine challenge will air from February 14-16, 2011 with the winner bringing home $1 million, $300,000 for second place, and $200,000 for third. IBM vows to donate any money that Watson wins to charity, while Rutter and Jennings will offer half of their winnings to the same cause. When AI defeats human opponents in closed environments like those seen in videogames or even Chess, it's easy to comprehend. If Watson can beat Jeopardy's greatest at their own game, it could be an indication of AI's bright future as the ruler of humanity, though right away Watson is likely to be used for diagnosis of illnesses or in customer support. If you think calling a support line is annoying now, just wait until Watson is on the other end."

12/24/2010 9:28:16 PM

was mentioned in Tech Talk message_topic.aspx?topic=565089

but your link is from escapist...does the zeropunctuation guy describe this??

12/24/2010 9:31:01 PM

Quote :

"an indication of AI's bright future as the ruler of humanity"

prepare to be enslaved

12/24/2010 9:32:41 PM

They are going to wipe the floor with that bot.

12/24/2010 9:42:51 PM

12/24/2010 9:46:19 PM

meh

[Edited on December 24, 2010 at 9:54 PM. Reason : eh]

12/24/2010 9:49:45 PM

Quote :

"The AI be represented by some kind of on-screen avatar"

ebonics

12/24/2010 9:52:55 PM

holy shit. this thing is good.

1/13/2011 4:33:53 PM

I wonder how they're going to have Watson ring in ... doesn't seem fair because he could respond at near the speed of light. or does he first figure out the answer, then ring in? seems like ringing in instantly, then using your couple seconds to respond would be the best strategy (though unfair in a contest against weakling humans)

1/13/2011 5:04:09 PM

i think they get around that by revealing the question to Watson at the same time as the humans are allowed to start ringing in

based on the human reaction time, plus however long it takes to think of what the answer is... it evens it out considerably

1/13/2011 5:07:11 PM

Is the answer going to be read aloud to watson, just like the human contestants, and it will then attempt comprehend it?

1/13/2011 5:12:22 PM

Quote :

"I wonder how they're going to have Watson ring in ... doesn't seem fair because he could respond at near the speed of light. or does he first figure out the answer, then ring in? seems like ringing in instantly, then using your couple seconds to respond would be the best strategy (though unfair in a contest against weakling humans)"

the question is given to watson at the same time the question hits the human contestants' retinas. there is also a signaling mechanism so it actually has to physically press a button on the signaling device.

1/13/2011 5:17:17 PM

Cool.

If it wins, they should take him to the UK and have him appear on Weakest Link. Ann will put him in its place!

1/13/2011 6:19:07 PM

Is it connected to the internet?

1/13/2011 6:27:26 PM

now THIS is must see TV...I love me some jeopardy.

1/13/2011 6:29:17 PM

Was that video just a practice round? I didn't see Trebek there but it had the other guys.

1/13/2011 6:30:22 PM

yeah, it was apparently just a rehearsal

1/13/2011 6:30:45 PM

Quote :

"Is it connected to the internet?"

No.

1/13/2011 7:11:33 PM

nerdgasm

1/13/2011 7:17:47 PM

i'll be much more impressed if there are a whole lot of video/audio clues. or before&after and wordplay type categories

1/13/2011 7:25:06 PM

1/17/2011 10:25:03 PM

1/17/2011 10:29:07 PM

What is muffin top?

that made me laugh tonight, sometimes they ask some stupid shit

1/17/2011 10:37:18 PM

^^^ahahahahaha

1/17/2011 10:38:52 PM

1) I don't watch jeopardy that much
2) I thought the muffin top q was a clever photoshop (hilarious)
3) I discover ( ^ ) that this was a real question.
4) I rofled for a considerable amount of time concerning points 2 and 3.
5) /watson

1/17/2011 10:40:18 PM

i have a feeling this is going to be a one sided beating. Either Watson will completely dominate or the 2 people will wipe the floor. Their will be no in between.

1/17/2011 11:00:54 PM

Watson ends up raking

http://www.internetbits.com/jeopardy-champs-no-match-for-ibm-super-computer/56872/


[Edited on January 17, 2011 at 11:20 PM. Reason : link]

1/17/2011 11:15:32 PM

I had no idea humans have developed code for reasoning.

I feel like there is a catch.
I feel like they have something to do with the questions being asked.

How could this be possible?
If the category were "Hook" (a.k.a Peter Pan) and the Answer was "A fairy" how in the world is it going to know to respond "Who is Tinkerbell?" when hooks and fairies are found millions of times in the encyclopedia of knowledge. How is it going to narrow it down to the right answer?

Even Google doesn't know.
The computer results will look something like this:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AsQKY4BbSx7saDnyFr5kaa2bvZx4?p=hook+fairy&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-701

1/18/2011 3:29:19 AM

Lets see it drive home after the show.

1/18/2011 3:31:23 AM

^^

2nd result

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Hook%22+%22Fairy%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

It has to have a bunch of filtering to wash out the noise and 'reasoning' to know what would be acceptable or standard Jeopardy answers, I assume. There would also have to be plenty of misses as well.

1/18/2011 8:44:35 AM

So people still think this thing is just googling the clues

1/18/2011 8:46:15 AM

^ I believe they are just trying to depict the thought process of Watson using Google. Also, as it is stated before, Watson's not connected to the internet during the competition.

1/18/2011 8:59:27 AM

Quote :

"The competition has been in the works for four years simply because of its nature. Jeopardy's contestants often answer questions posed in an abnormal manner, with puns and wordplay, so creating a computer that can analyze these questions in the same way and formulate an answer within seconds was a seemingly impossible task."

Obviously they've just been downloading the internet for 4 years so now it won't need to be online for Google to work

1/18/2011 9:04:00 AM

NOVA is doing a special on Watson tonight at 10pm on UNC-TV. Should be interesting

2/9/2011 1:27:59 PM

I'll be interested to see if Watson ever answers incorrectly

2/9/2011 2:46:06 PM

I love Ken Jennings.

2/9/2011 2:47:09 PM

This machine is either gonna dominate every question or never get anything right.

I don't see any middle ground.

2/9/2011 2:48:10 PM

woot woot! pumped for this!

2/14/2011 6:18:49 PM

What's next, pitching machines in the MLB?

2/14/2011 6:28:58 PM

The problem with Watson is that it has no emotions; it could answer 10 questions in a row incorrectly w/out being flustered.

2/14/2011 6:30:51 PM

aw here we go

2/14/2011 7:06:53 PM

Watson is smoking dem chumps.

2/14/2011 7:14:29 PM

i want to see him get one wrong then murder alex with a laser beam

2/14/2011 7:15:41 PM

I only saw one answer that had it actually buzzed in, it would have gotten incorrect at the bottom

2/14/2011 7:17:22 PM

pew pew pew

2/14/2011 7:17:52 PM

I would've just unplugged Watson all surreptitiously

2/14/2011 7:20:15 PM

He actually got quite a few incorrect there after that last commercial

2/14/2011 7:24:17 PM

Quote :

"I only saw one answer that had it actually buzzed in, it would have gotten incorrect at the bottom "

there were a couple.

And they gave Jennings "Terminus" when the answer was "terminal" they wouldn't have done that if all humans were playing...

2/14/2011 7:26:07 PM

jennings looked really anxious there too

2/14/2011 7:29:13 PM

That's it? A tie? No final jeopardy question? Lame-o

2/14/2011 7:30:58 PM