Monday, February 21, 2011

3 Days of Watson (spoilers)

(caution! spoilers below!)

Last week's 3-day Jeopardy challenge - pitting IBM's latest A.I. research project, "Watson" against two of Jeopardy's most celebrated players - has come to an end. And Watson blew it out.

At the end of the 2-game competition which ran over 3 days, Watson ended with a final score of $77,147, beating his two human opponents each by more than $50,000. For a little while (a very short little while), it looked like human opponent Ken Jennings might actually make some headway in the 2nd game, after Watson missed a question on a Daily Double. But in the end... chalk up another win for computers.

IBM decided, before the match, that it would donate its winnings ($1 million) to charity. Half of their winnings went to World Vision, and the other half went to World Community Grid.

Below are a few of the interesting articles I read about this challenge:
"How Watson 'sees,' 'hears,' and 'speaks' to play Jeopardy"
"The Confusion Over an Airport Clue"
"Watson's Wagering Strategies"
"Ken Jennings on Playing Jeopardy against Watson"

1 comment:

michelle said...

Where you got your brain intrigues me! We're from the same gene pool ;)!