OT: Jeopardy - Humans vs. Machine
Starts tonight at 7:30. Fascinating that this computer ("Watson", after IBM founder) will be able to understand human idioms and natural language. It's quite complex if you've ever studied linguistics. Jennings seems like a bit of a tool, but I watched almost every one of his episodes during that long run. Brad Rutter is the other contestant, the record holder for highest cumulative winnings.
Watson will likely be the forerunner of technologies that affect our lives for several decades. Bonus opportunity for all those folks posting "Go Big Blue" to actually be correct in their rooting interest, and be the first to bow down to the machines. I side with John Connor.
February 14th, 2011 at 7:34 PM ^
He fighting for Humanity.
He gonna put the team on his back
February 14th, 2011 at 7:36 PM ^
They're gonna get him on the answer: "This is what an orgasm feels like."
February 14th, 2011 at 7:39 PM ^
If I could +1 to you
February 14th, 2011 at 10:36 PM ^
Extra bonus for getting to legitimately post that on Valentine's day. Good show, good man, good show.
February 15th, 2011 at 9:24 AM ^
there might be a good chance that the human dudes won't know that question.
February 14th, 2011 at 7:38 PM ^
computer to answer with "What is love, Alex".
February 14th, 2011 at 7:44 PM ^
can that thing take my micro exam tomorrow. Holy crap that thing is impressive. I think ken jennings is about to shit his pants
February 14th, 2011 at 7:44 PM ^
Holy crap. This is borderline scary.
February 15th, 2011 at 8:47 AM ^
The machines have become self aware
February 14th, 2011 at 7:46 PM ^
February 14th, 2011 at 10:08 PM ^
was better than the movie. the book still rocks.
February 14th, 2011 at 7:49 PM ^
at first commercial break
February 14th, 2011 at 7:50 PM ^
Its going to become self-aware and then we are all seriously effed.
I am not looking forward to living underground to hide from the machines and nuclear fallout.
February 14th, 2011 at 11:41 PM ^
...so i'm not the only one worried that is worried that schwartzenegger actually IS a droid and is gonna take control of the country??
February 14th, 2011 at 7:52 PM ^
In San Angelo, TX, JEOPARDY! is only on @1500. And it's impossible to view online. Erego, I'm missing the rise of the machines. I AM ANGAR!
Also, I watched NOVA last week where they were talking about the programming involved to get Watson to answer questions. Those guys at Big Blue are ridiculous. Also funny how the practice host they had kept making fun of Watson, and some of the programmers took it personally that he was making fun of a machine that couldn't defend itself.
February 14th, 2011 at 7:56 PM ^
February 14th, 2011 at 9:45 PM ^
Do not taunt happy fun ball
February 14th, 2011 at 7:59 PM ^
at the end of round one. Perhaps we've learned that dogs can sniff them out?
EDIT: looks like that's it for today. Double Jeopardy resumes tomorrow. A lot of the time this half hour took up explaining how Watson worked. Fascinating, I'll be tuning in the next 2 days. At least the humans landed a few blows. I wonder when Morpheus shows up
February 14th, 2011 at 8:02 PM ^
... this statement is a lie.
And see what happens. Hopefully the fucker blows up.
February 14th, 2011 at 8:04 PM ^
I love to see transistors burn, but I'd cringe a bit at seeing 15+ terabytes of RAM go up in smoke...
February 14th, 2011 at 8:03 PM ^
My favorite part was when Watson said the same incorrect answer as Jennings and Trebeck said "Ken already said that..." with so much disdain and Jennings gives the computer a funny look
February 14th, 2011 at 8:17 PM ^
I'd like to know how they're timing Watson's receipt of the clues with the players' receipt of them. Watson apparently gets it as a text message, more or less. It seemed like Watson was almost never out-buzzed, so to speak, when it was confident in its answer. I wonder if it thinks faster than the players after it receives the clues or if it receives or understands the clues faster. It could be all of the above, of course.
February 14th, 2011 at 8:51 PM ^
The way I understand it, he receives it the same instant as it is displayed on the board. Humans have to deal with reading/hearing, Watson has to parse the text.
EDIT: And I just used "he" to describe Watson. The machines have already won.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:05 PM ^
My guess is that Watson reads the text faster than Trebek and so starts searching its memory for answers faster than the human players. I wonder if the human players would be well-served to try to ignore Trebek and just read the text of the clues...Of course, I may be looking for a reason why Watson has some unfair advantage. I always hated it as a kid when John Henry was defeated by the steam engine.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:24 PM ^
I think that's just part of the experiment. They're not giving him an "advantage," they just had to constrain the problem somehow. Computer vision/voice recognition weren't the problems they were trying to tackle.
Interesting to try to compare the two though. Completely different how a person comes to an answer and how a computer does.
February 14th, 2011 at 10:11 PM ^
Actually John Henry beats the steam engine. Granted, Henry collapses and dies of exhaustion immediately after the race, but according to the folk tale he does in fact win.
February 15th, 2011 at 9:29 AM ^
I forgot an important part of the story.
February 15th, 2011 at 2:05 PM ^
So is Rutter or Jennings my John Henry?
February 14th, 2011 at 8:53 PM ^
Watson was definitely "out-buzzed" at least once that I saw. It might not happen much, but it did happen.
February 14th, 2011 at 11:04 PM ^
if Watson was outbuzzed?
February 14th, 2011 at 11:04 PM ^
if Watson was outbuzzed?
February 14th, 2011 at 8:29 PM ^
They're now making computers that are better at human things than humans are. That seems really irrational. People are phasing themselves out. If computers can think better than we do, the only thing we'll be better at is irrational behaivor.
... Until they invent a Psychotic computer.
I'm surprised Watson is able to deal with the idioms and play on words that comes into some questions.
February 16th, 2011 at 2:33 AM ^
creative thinking
February 14th, 2011 at 8:43 PM ^
I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:24 PM ^
Sheep
February 14th, 2011 at 9:27 PM ^
Luddite
February 14th, 2011 at 10:14 PM ^
anti-dentite
February 14th, 2011 at 8:50 PM ^
Before and After category?
February 14th, 2011 at 8:57 PM ^
Who won?
February 14th, 2011 at 9:06 PM ^
Watson was tied with one of the players. The other player was $1,600 back of them, IIRC.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:13 PM ^
See below for end of R1 score
February 14th, 2011 at 9:50 PM ^
Fair enough.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:04 PM ^
So skynet is truly alive?
February 14th, 2011 at 9:24 PM ^
[cue Scared Panda]
February 14th, 2011 at 9:40 PM ^
Consider the recent history of artificial intelligence. Scientists have created machines that play checkers perfectly--no matter the situation on the board, the algorithm always selects the ideal move. Machines have established long-term superiority over humans in chess. Even the best human grandmasters can hope for little more than a draw against computer opponents with practically unlimited RAM, processing speed, and access to databases of every chess game that's ever been played. Now Jeopardy is falling. Even if the humans prevail in this match, 99% of all human contestants on Jeopardy would fall to Watson in a similar matchup. It's only a matter of time before the machines take Jeopardy away from us.
February 14th, 2011 at 10:20 PM ^
we are not robots. En masse, we are self-repairing, self-replicating, work-producing machines. Perhaps we we were left here to condition the planet a certain way. If you could build a factory with robots that made widgets, performed maintenance on each other, reproduced improved models when obsolete, and so on, why wouldn't you? We may simply be the the lowest cost complex machine. Watson takes up enormous space, isn't mobile, and can't do things like build aqueducts to clean its own waste. Perhaps the gods are capitalists
<br>So cheer up
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