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GeekNights 20110214 - IBM's Watson

MrPeriodMrPeriod
edited February 2011 in GeekNights

Tonight on GeekNights, we talk around the whole Watson competing on Jeopardy stunt. But first, Nokia is now in bed with Microsoft, and Pandora filed an IPO for some reason.

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Comments

  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited February 2011
    Why should it always buzz in first? To buzz in when you're not sufficiently certain that you know the answer only serves to lose you points. Always buzzing in as soon as possible is sub-optimal. Watson's algorithm has a threshold for certainty before buzzing in, and it definitely buzzed in first most of the time.

    Watson didn't get Internet access, instead using 16TB of RAM to store data. Additionally, Watson buzzes in by pushing a mechanical button, it seems. It does get the questions given to it in a text file, but using a camera to read the questions off the board isn't really as much of an interesting problem anyway. However, I will note that had it had audio inputs it would have benefited, because at one point Watson said a wrong answer that had already been given by one of the other contestants.

    You can see here a description of how Watson interacts with the game. It also says the following:
    The best human contestants don’t wait for, but instead anticipate when Trebek will finish reading a clue. They time their “buzz” for the instant when the last word leaves Trebek’s mouth and the “Buzzer Enable” light turns on. Watson cannot anticipate. He can only react to the enable signal. While Watson reacts at an impressive speed, humans can and do buzz in faster than his best possible reaction time.
    That post is succeeded by Knowing what it knows: selected nuances of Watson's strategy and Watson's wagering strategies.

    I have to side with Rym in that last discussion on human vs computer. Any game of the nature you discussed is not a single-player game unless you know exactly what the other players will do, irrespective of what the other players happen to be.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • RymRym
    Why should it always buzz in first? To buzz in when you're not sufficiently certain that you know the answer only serves to lose you points.
    In quiz bowl, good players almost always know the answer long before the question is done being asked. The computer obviously should not have buzzed in if it did not know the answer, but it should also have known almost every answer, and I find it unlikely that Watson would not know the answer by the time it was able to ring in, but would with several more seconds of processing.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    I must note that, from a game-theoretic perspective, Final Jeopardy is actually quite an interesting game.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Hey guys, I watched a 5 minute video yesterday, and knew more about Watson than you guys. A lot of your questions are trivially answered with no effort at all. Why show off exactly how ignorant you are on an episode about knowledge and ignorance? It's quite embarrassing.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    Hey guys, I watched a 5 minute video yesterday, and knew more about Watson than you guys. A lot of your questions are trivially answered with no effort at all. Why show off exactly how ignorant you are on an episode about knowledge and ignorance? It's quite embarrassing.
    Haha, good point.
  • RymRym
    Hey guys, I watched a 5 minute video yesterday, and knew more about Watson than you guys. A lot of your questions are trivially answered with no effort at all. Why show off exactly how ignorant you are on an episode about knowledge and ignorance? It's quite embarrassing.
    Heh.. We had no better show ideas, and we were running late to just get one done. Also, it was Scott's idea. ;^)
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    It was a good idea! But by spending 5 minutes watching the "What is Watson?" video on the IBM website would have told you everything you needed to know about how it buzzes in, and why it doesn't buzz in every time immediately. Running late is an excuse, but I'd rather you do 5 minutes of research so you don't waste MY time, and you'd get a better show out of it too.
  • ChurbaChurba
    It was a good idea! But by spending 5 minutes watching the "What is Watson?" video on the IBM website would have told you everything you needed to know about how it buzzes in, and why it doesn't buzz in every time immediately. Running late is an excuse, but I'd rather you do 5 minutes of research so you don't waste MY time, and you'd get a better show out of it too.
    Also, Techstuff, by HowStuffWorks, very recently did a very informative podcast on Watson.
  • Kaptain KKaptain K
    Daryl Surat and I both mourned Detroit's government poopooing the Robocop statue. Then we exchanged Robocop movie quotes.
  • MattMatt
    Scott, to your battle bots "anything goes but projectiles" league, could I build a a robot with a giant heat gun array that will lock on and try to desolder the other bot?
  • AprecheApreche
    Scott, to your battle bots "anything goes but projectiles" league, could I build a a robot with a giant heat gun array that will lock on and try to desolder the other bot?
    Sure, why not? As long as it doesn't pose any danger to the spectators.
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