Watson @ Jeopardy Feb 14-16

[Zeb]

Watson got a relatively easy question incorrect. Very very incorrect. Category was US cities and his answer was Toronto.

But he wagered some random numbe like $731.

Even Watson knows Canada is US Jr.

[Akiyama]

So is Watson still ahead/winning/did he win? o.O I missed tonight too.

[Zeb]

So is Watson still ahead/winning/did he win? o.O I missed tonight too.

Spoiler: show

he's at 35k. he only bid 700 for final jeopardy. 2nd place guy went from 5400 to 10400. He pretty much raped the show by buzzing in quicker than the other two. Looked like maybe 5? questions or so he was at less than 50% on. He guessed on a double jeopardy question with 30 something % confidence and still got it right.

[Norellicus]

On the flipside of that, he had a question that he was 99% sure about and got it completely wrong.

[Stiker]

seems a lot of it is just reaction time with the buzzer, seemed nearly every question Ken was like BUTTONBUTTONBUTTONFFFFUUU.
That being said, I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

Yeah, Ken looked pissed as fuck. I remember watching his streak and that's what got him so far. He just had everyone beat on not only knowledge, but buzzer time so no one would get close.

As far as final Jeopardy goes, had a talk with some friends and we all came to the same conclusion: when the answer is a straight fact and not too many puns/additional noise is involved, Watson just flat dominates. However, with something like the final Jeopardy question, Watson had too many facts to weigh-in on: U.S. Cities, two Airports, WWII Hero, WWII Battle. I have no idea what happened in his logic, but all the Watson couldn't find the important facts and was tricked, especially since he failed to check his final answer with the category.

Overall though, I'm impressed. Far more excited about this than I was Deep Blue because I'm actually getting to watch the results unfold. There are a ton of exciting possibilities for the Watson technology (SKYNET!!!!) and I can't wait to see future applications.

Of course, this brought up another discussion: is Watson more AI or just a really powerful search engine? Hard for me to determine which, as of course, Watson is searching for answers; however, you would think some form of AI is brought into play to interpret the query it should search for.

[Maguspk]

Watson is most definitely a form of AI, searching problem spaces intelligently is a form of AI.

[Bockage]

seems a lot of it is just reaction time with the buzzer, seemed nearly every question Ken was like BUTTONBUTTONBUTTONFFFFUUU.

That's how they taught us to play in quiz bowl. You listen in for key words and as soon as you can narrow it down you spam your finger on the button. It seems like the computer is a lot faster at that then Ken is.

[Akiyama]

Lol @ tonight.

Spoiler: show

Jennings "I for one welcome our robot overlords" rofl. Watson finishing with 41k today and 77k over two days. Ridiculous.

[Darus Grey]

I'd understand if Pearson was a war hero, but... he wasn't. Its one thing to be "off the mark", but Toronto was about as far as you can get from the mark.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_B...o_City_Airport

This is why it chose Toronto, Toronto fit the description except: He was WW1, and it's not in the US.

Otherwise:

It's important to remember that we contain a language processing unit that has more power than dozens of linked super-computers when it comes to natural language, "obvious" to us means nothing to a machine, and our idea of "simple" is really really really fucking complex shit if you actually break it down.

[Titanss]

at least tonight was more interesting than yesterday

[Qalbert]

legitimately surprised he got the last one, the wording was kind of complex. I mean it's literally what he was made for, but yeah.
Also lol at Ken using the overlords line.

[aduidarnenye]

Good show. Really enjoyed it. Watson had issues in tonight's episode.

[Skidz]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_B...o_City_Airport

This is why it chose Toronto, Toronto fit the description except: He was WW1, and it's not in the US.

But the question said, "Its largest airport is named for a World War II hero; its second largest for a World War II battle." Pearson international is Toronto's largest airport. The airport you mentioned is small as hell, it even says so on the wiki page...

no part of Watson's answer was correct. edit: I worded that wrong, but ya know what i mean.

[Norellicus]

http://www-943.ibm.com/innovation/us...t/toronto.html

Edit: Is there someplace I can watch the episode from today (2/16)? Forgot to set DVR

[Omniyoji]

Lol @ tonight.

Spoiler: show

Jennings "I for one welcome our robot overlords" rofl. Watson finishing with 41k today and 77k over two days. Ridiculous.

was about to post this, rolf awesome. Watson kicked major ass.

[Bockage]

Also lol at Ken using the overlords line.

That was awesome of him to do. Also lol worthy, in the last few seconds of the show it looked like Jennings was pretending to choke Watson.

[Cantih]

Imagine, eventually, instead of pre-recorded customer service lines, we'll have Watsons on the other end.

[Qalbert]

That was awesome of him to do. Also lol worthy, in the last few seconds of the show it looked like Jennings was pretending to choke Watson.

'Watson' on Conan.
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/vi...puter.tbs.html

[sephir]

But the question said, "Its largest airport is named for a World War II hero; its second largest for a World War II battle." Pearson international is Toronto's largest airport. The airport you mentioned is small as hell, it even says so on the wiki page...

no part of Watson's answer was correct. edit: I worded that wrong, but ya know what i mean.

Not to mention Billy Bishop was a WWI fighter pilot, not WWII.


One thing I also noticed was that Watson moved around the categories quite a bit. That tactic tricks me up a bit as I usually need 1 answer to start the "thought process" to get the harder answers.

[Qalbert]

if you noticed, it looked random until doubles were gone, then tended to go 200s 400s etc, basically following whatever algorithm he has for finding the doubles I guess