Watson, IBM's Jeopardy Computer, Takes Down Champions (VIDEO)

IBM's Watson, a Jeopardy playing computer, has garnered a lot of attention, but hasn't really been seen in action. Until now.

Watson showed exactly what he was made of in the practice round for a special Jeopardy Champions round, which featured the machine alongside previous Jeopardy winners Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

Watson won the round with $4,400, according to ZDNet. Jennings finished second with $3,400, and Rutter trailed with $1,200.

Today's demonstration of the artificially intelligent Jeopardy question answering machine is a precursor for the first-ever real "man vs machine" Jeopardy competition, which will air on February 14, 15, and 16, according to Mashable.

IBM's machine aims to show the future of artificial intelligence, interpreting human speech and spitting out answers based on how it interprets what it hears, similar to the way humans do. According to ZD Net, who posed questions to the machine's creators after the demonstration, the quiz questions hit Watson's chips at about the same time it would take the human retina to interpret the questions displayed on screen.

Watson's biggest advantage? According to Rutter it's Watson's ability to weigh risks and make accurate wagers on "Double Jeopardy" question.

Is Watson the future of AI? Watch the video below and decide for yourself.

WATCH:

Comments

[fumes]

10:41 PM on 02/16/2011

there's only one thing that can stop him.. golf.

[trekbette]

10:22 PM on 02/16/2011

My husband and I are watching and keeping score. We usually do really well. Not today. Jennings and Watson are just kicking our bu*ts!

[trekbette]

10:30 PM on 02/16/2011

Final score is 21 to 14. I got the Final Jeopardy correct and I won! That's out of a possible 60 points (not counting Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy). At least I can say that I'm better at Jeopardy then my husband. Woo hoo!

[DudleyHanks]

12:44 AM on 02/14/2011

Too bad speach recognition doesn't work that well on my Windows-based laptop ...

[Dietmar Appelt]

01:18 AM on 02/10/2011

First IBM gave us Deep Blue, now comes Watson - is V.I.K.I. next?

[Chad Heflick]

07:52 PM on 02/16/2011

Nice IRobot reference

[moutonnoir]

02:12 AM on 02/07/2011

the list of jobs about to be marginalized by robots is large: bus\train\airplane\any other pilot\driver, teacher, nurse, solider, metermaid, traffic cop, etc. etc.

Who will fund this takeover of our jobs? We will! Via pentagon\darpa.. I love tech.. But I am not happy about the future it will bring us.

[thereisonlyoneparty]

12:30 AM on 02/01/2011

While this is interesting I have to wonder who well the computer will do against categories that are more puzzling or riddlelous than those presented in this clip.  A computer can deal with facts and what not, but what about more abstract queries?  There are question on Jeopardy! that require more than just recognizing facts.

I guess I will have to wait and see.

[DJ Jaffe]

10:18 AM on 01/29/2011

1. Is one of Watson's advantages that it can press the button faster than a human?
2. It seems to do better on questions that are not about pop-culture. True?

[thereisonlyoneparty]

12:35 AM on 02/01/2011

It uses the same cue (the buzzer on light signal) to determine when it can attempt an answer.  The better players generally are able to fairly accurately predict the when buzzers will go live.

Even so it still does seem like an advantage.  Plus it does not have to see or understand anything that is presented and can automagically begin solving based on the text input.

[trweste144]

06:52 AM on 02/15/2011

Yes, Watson does have an advantage that goes beyond what the other responder replied. Here's why: Watson does not get penalized for buzzing in early. When Jenning or Rutters do so, they basically get disqualified unless Watson gets it wrong. Watson will buzz in as soon as it knows the answer and does not face this penalty. This is according to Stephen Baker, the author of final Jeopardy, as per his interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

As to your second question, I have no facts to go off so I will not offer an opinion.

[giono]

04:45 PM on 01/23/2011

good yes, but not invincible -- yet !

[Senpay]

01:04 PM on 01/20/2011

If I could commit the contents of Wikipedia or the like to [electronic] memory, I'd be a Jeopardy champion too.

[John Prahl]

05:14 PM on 02/09/2011

Anyone can post stuff on Wikiepedia, so that does not mean that it is always correct. It (Wikiepedia) is only as smart as the person who enters the data.

[binspired]

09:12 AM on 01/18/2011

I"ll bet this computer could diagnose mental illness with stellar accuracy too without bias and be more correct than most any psychiatrist.....human interaction is a thing of the past

[thereisonlyoneparty]

12:36 AM on 02/01/2011

It depends on how well it is programmed.  A properly trained individual can "fool" a doctor, so they can probably "fool" a computer programmed by people who are not doctors, but sought their advice.

[codwix]

01:45 AM on 01/18/2011

Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay door, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Dave Bowman: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. - 2001: A Space Odyssey

[wildwildwest]

05:33 AM on 02/16/2011

Don't do it, Dave.

[Acert]

11:02 PM on 01/17/2011

"interpreting human speech and spitting out answers based on how it interprets what it hears, similar to the way humans do."

=====================================================================

The computer relies on natural language TEXT.

http://www.research.ibm.com/deepqa/deepqa.shtml

[chipchuck]

10:12 AM on 01/17/2011

Here's a suggestion for the final question:

On screen answer: Fine.

Answer in form of question: How do you feel?

[Ted Bouklos]

12:13 PM on 01/17/2011

what are emotions?
correct.

[Higgs Boson]

01:32 AM on 01/17/2011

This computer was still given all of the answers by humans ...........

[Ted Bouklos]

12:12 PM on 01/17/2011

humans are given the answers by other humans as well. It's called learning ;-)

[HekmagaJuximakLives]

06:36 PM on 01/16/2011

It's not fair. They used a computer.