Thursday, February 17, 2011

WATSON

Last night was the final “Watson” match in Jeopardy! last night. For those of you that don’t know, Watson is an IBM-created supercomputer designed to compete in Jeopardy! against human competitors, in this case the two most celebrated contestants in the show’s history—Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Watson has no internet access, and makes carefully calculated decisions about whether or not to buzz in and what answer, out of the millions of possibilities, it should give. It also “learns” the patterns of answers that emerge in each category and makes wagers based on its and its competitors’ standings.

The marvelous thing about this machine is that it’s a counterpart to Deep Blue, the computer that beat Gary Kasparov in a chess match. But chess is a far more mathematically-oriented game while Jeopardy! is more linguistically based. Regardless of whether Watson won or lost, the very fact that it was able to compete successfully against the two powerhouse Jeopardy! champions is a testament to its frightening technological advancement. It has no consciousness, but it’s still able to generate abstract processes as opposed to strictly algorithmic ones.

I don’t think it’s the start of the robot revolution, but I do think it’s something to marvel at. And, impressed as I am with the achievement, I cannot help but wonder why so much technology and money and effort was put into a machine that plays an arbitrary game. If this technology was going to be developed, why was it generated solely for exhibition? It seems strange to me, though I can’t deny the enjoyment I felt in watching the 3-day event.

9 comments:

  1. I meant to watch this the last three days, and I managed to forget every. Damned. Night.
    It's a pretty impressive advancement in terms of computers. Another few years, and we all might have our own, personal Watson.

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  2. i wonder what would happen if you made it compete against its self i think that would be really cool process to watch

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  3. definitely didnt win due to the sole fact of perfect buzzing timing in...

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  4. Too bad his buzzes were faster than everyone elses lol

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  5. The fast buzzes are the advantage of being a computer.
    When the machines evolve and start destroying us, anyone who cried "no fair! computer have perfect timing and etc!" will be LONG dead.

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  6. Anyone else ready for the Butlerian Jihad?

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  7. Well, it's like those robots that only walk around with a humanoid shape.
    It's more a marketing stunt than something practical.

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  8. y'know, i'm surprised they didn't use a human looking robot to replicate human actions

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  9. I might get around to watching Jeopardy just to see that.

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