IBM's "Watson" computer to compete on Jeopardy this week

trogdor9

http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/

The first episode is on tonight. This is a pretty exciting event for artificial intelligence and computer science.

Shiam

My school is throwing a big event for this, but I will be in class at least for today's match. Might try to see the other 2, if for no other reason than hanging out in our bitchin concert hall.
Otherwise it'll be pretty cool if it wins.

Snickety-Snake

Otherwise it'll be pretty cool if it wins.

I have a feeling that you won't be disappointed.

trogdor9

Watson ended today tied with Brad at $5,000. He struggled a bit with the harder (higher value) questions. Far from perfect, but still very impressive.

TorontoKev

Bloody collaborators!

lackofcheese

Collaborators?

Omnutia

TorontoKev

Collaborators?

In the coming war vs the robots, the makers of Watson will be known among humans as collaborators!

zehaeva

Collaborators?

In the coming war vs the robots, the makers of Watson will be known among humans as collaborators!

Isn't it a bit early to be preparing for the Butlerian Jihad?

lackofcheese

It was hilarious when Watson wagered $6435 on the Daily Double.
EDIT: Whoa, it's pretty much over now. There's no way a human will catch up in the second game.

zombie a gogo

I predicted while watching it that Watson would not get any of the decade questions correct and that during final Jeopardy (last night) I thought he might have a problem with understand "U.S." and given that his response was "Toronto" I'd say that I was correct.

lackofcheese

Yeah, it seems Watson doesn't put much stock by the category titles when answering the questions, which was necessary several times.

Churba

Well, that's that for the first game - Watson blew the humans out of the water, Taking out the first game with a roughly 25,000 dollar lead.

Prediction for the second game -

Snickety-Snake

Watson: 2
Humans: A valiant effort.

lackofcheese

It's actually based on score, not games won.
If you do the math behind Watson's final wager, it's kinda funny. I was wondering why it didn't just wager $0, but the choice it made is also obvious.

George Patches

The fact that they could build a computer system to interpret all those Jeopardy questions is quite impressive. Well done IBM.

zehaeva

Omnutia

Is that shopped or real?

George Patches

Is that shopped or real?

The was for real, it was quite funny.

Neito

Is that shopped or real?

Ken is kinda like that, apparently. Not crazy computers going to kill us, but goofy nerdy funny.

George Patches

Ken is kinda like that, apparently. Not crazy computers going to kill us, but goofy nerdy funny.

Yes, It should be noted that he only had that deadpan expression right at the moment his answer was revealed. He was smiling a split second later.

Jason

I, for one, made that joke yesterday while chatting with TorontoKev. Prescient? Yes.

TorontoKev

I deny everything.

Omnutia

Watson drew from 200 million pages of scanned info, does this constitute copyright infringement?

That somewhat relates to that Blizzard lawsuit about copying things into RAM being infringing (In which case, you've infringed every website you've visited.).

Apreche

Watson drew from 200 million pages of scanned info, does this constitute copyright infringement?

That somewhat relates to that Blizzard lawsuit about copying things into RAM being infringing (In which case, you've infringed every website you've visited.).

Yarr! Me be pirating the Jeopardies. Hand over all the booty Trebek!

lackofcheese

Watson drew from 200 million pages of scanned info, does this constitute copyright infringement?

That somewhat relates to that Blizzard lawsuit about copying things into RAM being infringing (In which case, you've infringed every website you've visited.).

I guess one would argue that a website gives implicit permission for a temporary local copy.
Even if Watson's use counts as copyright infringement, I don't see how anyone could pin a specific work to IBM (without inside help).
In any case, it would probably qualify as fair use.

Omnutia

I guess one would argue that a website gives implicit permission for a temporary local copy.

I thought that, then I thought: Crazy EULAs.

Also, virus scanners.

ninjarabbi

okeefe

The Washington Post has an awesome Q&A with Ken Jennings about the Watson episode.

lackofcheese

Ken Jennings is an entertaining guy.

Luke Burrage