"Keep smiling, Ken. I'm planning your fiery death."
So I'm watching the Jeopardy-Watson challenge, in which two of Jeopardy's greatest champions face off against Watson, an IBM computer that can understand idiosyncrasies in the English language. After the first round, Watson is womping on Ken Jennings; it's embarrassing, really. Interestingly, he doesn't know not to repeat an incorrect answer if another contestant has already given it, but he does pronounce Jean Valjean correctly, so that's impressive. Except that he does it in a creepy "open the pod bay doors, Hal!" computer voice, so that's disconcerting.
The IBMers in the audience are looking pretty pleased with themselves. I just hope they're not leading us into a nuclear holocaust that will force us to invent time travel in order to save the world.
9 comments:
Something I think is unfair is how quickly Watson can ring in since he's a computer. You have to wait to ring in until Alex has read the last syllable of the last word, and Watson can ring in at the exact right second every time (locking out the other guys) without having the normal human delay.
My opinion might be slightly tainted by the fact that I am far more interested in hearing Ken and Brad give answers than a monotoned computer.
I agree, Kris. That's the reason Watson is winning. Those were not difficult questions. I knew almost every single one. You could tell that Ken and Brad knew the answers--they just couldn't ring in fast enough. You could see the frustration on their faces.
That's rather annoying, because it's not like Deep Blue beating Kasparov in chess. It's not a question of knowledge; it's a question of quickness on the buzzer.
This isn't to take away from what IBM has done. It's quite a feat that Watson can differentiate intricacies in language, but this contest isn't testing his knowledge/logic/strategy against another human's the way the Deep Blue match did. Still, it's interesting to watch. I find myself rooting desperately for the humans.
I'd also like an explanation from IBM as to the logic behind Watson's Daily Double wagers. They were such strange figures, I'm wondering if he considers how confident he's been in the category thus far (and how that would change if he stumbled upon the DD as the first pick in a category), how much money could be won by his competitors in the remainder of the round, and/or how much more he's likely to win in the round based on his performace thus far. Or if he just picks a number randomly.
Same for his Final Jeopardy wager. It was a miniscule amount considering how far in the lead he was. And what was up with that answer? He's a highly sophisticated computer with a wide range of knowledge but he doesn't know that Toronto isn't in the U.S.? Strange.
1. Watson has a physical access to the buzzer, not electrical.
2. he is fed the answer from text not from Alex's talking. This is why watson can't take other contestants answer in context ...it can't hear.
1. Yes, but it's still a machine pressing that button and thus has an edge in speed. You can tell because almost all of the questions Ken and Brad buzz in on are questions that fall below Watson's buzzing threshhold, thus Watson never even tries to buzz in. And also when they get a second chance at the few questions Watson gets wrong.
2. I just assumed he'd be fed the other contestants' answers as well, since they're trying to make him as close to a human as possible, but I guess that wouldn't be feasible.
I'd also like to add that I might be in love with Ken Jennings because of his "I for one welcome our new computer overlords" parenthetical Final Jeopardy answer.
Skynet!
I agree that it's incredible what IBM created, and they did a nice job explaining how Watson was made and how he comes up with the answers.
I just wish they would have made the show a little more interesting. Tonight was better, but the first night I was getting awfully bored with the whole thing. Apparently other people felt the same way -- I read a New Yorker article posted Tuesday morning that was titled "Watson=1, Fun=0." So true.
Why Toronto for a final jeopardy answer.
http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2011/02/watson-on-jeopardy-day-two-the-confusion-over-an-airport-clue.html
Ah, that explains a lot. It makes sense that Watson would downgrade the categories slightly. However, perhaps there should have been an adjustment made for Final Jeopardy, where the category more closely relates to the question. One thing I have problems with, though, is this line: "Also, the machine didn’t find much evidence to connect either city’s airport to World War II."
By "either city" the author was talking about both Toronto and Chicago (Watson's close second choice.) I don't buy that. The Battle of Midway is one of the most famous battles of WWII, and probably the most famous of the Pacific theater. (Iwo Jima might top it slightly.) Watson should have easily made that connection. Even if he primarily (and incorrectly) connected the airport's name to Chicago's Midway Plaisance, he still should have made that secondary connection.
Post a Comment