We had discussed this in an earlier post, but I suspect it probably ought to have a post for itself – a gentleman on Youtube has uploaded all three episodes of the Jeopardy Watson vs Ken Jennings vs Brad Rutter exhibition match on Youtube, and it’s definitely worth a watch.
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Is Google Sets any good at Only Connect, I wonder?
I have been known to use it to help complete a grid, but often a thesaurus is faster.
I’ll watch Day 3 of the Ken v Watson v Brad Jeopardy! match at home after work. But seeing how Day 2 went, I think Watson will have this in the bag. Ken and Brad will have to find the Daily Doubles as late into the rounds as possible, make them True Daily Doubles AND have to do exceedingly well at Final Jeopardy just to catch up!
Argh what was “What’s-on-yer scoreboard” from? Argh I knew this and forgot. Added Argh for emphasis.
There’s a hint in the tags.
Oh god, I’m an idiot.
Yes you are.
Interestingly, im thinking that Watson’s algorisms dont include the round titles, in many occasions he has missed the overriding theme.
They do, but it’s only one of many weightings it uses.
I noticed this was a particularly poor job –
Although the category titles can be misleading, and it’s fair to be cautious on the first question: Watson did not update based on the correct answers confirming the category.
The more I think about it, I can’t help but think that while Watson was built to play Jeopardy!, the search algorithms seem to work in such a way that would make it better for a word association game like Pyramid.
Also, as one final note that I’ve been meaning to slip in but keep forgetting, I really enjoyed the explanations about how Watson worked, but I hated how Alex’s little monologue bits felt like he was trying to sell me life insurance. It’s that unnatural, scripted pacing that drives me up a wall.
Already covered, 2:08 in – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoZRVoBFLY4
Bingo. I’m 80% sure he’s still in commercials for them; I think they air during TPiR.
On one level, this “Jeopardy! IBM Challenge” was a publicity stunt. And it worked–like the proverbial charm! Ratings for “Jeopardy!” were the highest they’ve been in six years.
Some observers are frightened by this whole affair. I’m even hearing some voices talking about the doom of humanity, with robots and computers “taking over”. Sure–I might start to believe it when somebody comes up with a program that allows a computer to devise and build a Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg deathtrap for its human chattels! (Of course, that would imply that somebody programmed sadism into the computer as well!)
The boffins at IBM still haven’t figured out how to make a computer’s speech sound natural. It still has that cybernetic drawl that puts some folks off. I can just hear it now: “I’ll have a con-so-nant. . . and a vo-wel. . . and a-no-ther vo-wel.. . “.
Who would have thought back in 1959, when UNIVAC was used to play Anagrams on “People Are Funny”, that it would get to the point we are today? I don’t think that even the most fanciful science-fiction writer would have ever thought of “Bothersbar.co.uk”!
So, everybody’s happy. It was an interesting entertainment for those who watched it. It got people talking about, and watching “Jeopardy!” once again. (That’s good for Sony.) It showed what super-computers can do. (That’s good for IBM.) And it got folks thinking about the future. (That’s good for everybody!)
As for Ken Jennings’ little piece at the end: tongue was decidedly inclined towards cheek there!
I really enjoyed the IBM Challenge as well, it was great entertainment in an otherwise dull week for me. It also made me want to go looking around YouTube for any other Jeopardy episodes, and I ended up watching the 2009 Tournament of Champions.
I didn’t think it’d be long before people started thinking of other game shows Watson could do. I myself wouldn’t mind seeing Watson take on one of The Chasers 😀
Or failing that, actually BEING a Chaser!
“Who will it be today? Will it be The Beast, Mark Labbett, with a brain as big as his stomach? Or will it be Anne Hegerty, The Governess herself, who puts all her opponents in detention? Or Shaun Wallace, The Dark Destroyer, the former Mastermind champion whose specialist subject is everything? Or finally, will it be Watson, the competitive construct of circuitry that saw off two of the greatest Jeopardy players in the world?”
I’ve thought along similar lines. However, the brainiacs at IBM have not yet thought of a way to instill personality into a computer. Nor have they completely eliminated that cybernetic drawl that folks associate with computers in “real life”.
One can only wonder what Watson would have made of, say, Keith from the Isle of Wight (8 February last). The Governess seemed to be enjoying herself, and it showed.
For that matter, how would The Beast or The Barrister have handled such an accomplished contestant as our friend Keith?
(Parenthetically, one American fan refers to Shawn Wallace as “The Iceman”.)
Rather than eliminating the cybernetic drawl, boffins are slowly eliminating that awful human drawl and replacing it with a crisp cybernetic sound. Autotune. You can consider Cher an early adopter, and Justin Bieber has the young people on board. Everyone else will follow in the end…
I’d like to see a Watson vs Bournemouth head to head on Mastermind.