Image Credit: Ben Hider/Getty ImagesIf you’re a horrible robot secretly plotting an apocalyptic takeover of the planet Earth, then the next three days will feel like Christmas, Independence Day, and Super Bowl Sunday, with just a touch of Bastille Day. That’s because Jeopardy is beginning a special three-night showdown between two of the quiz show’s ultra-champions — Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, a.k.a. “Mr. Winning Streak” and “Mr. Moneybags” — and Watson, a soulless robot invented by IBM to prove that machines can finally defeat their creators at the oldest game in human history: Knowledge of Random Trivia. (You’ll recall that the last time IBM did something like this, they created an abomination called Deep Blue, which defeated Garry Kasparov and ruined chess forever. In other news, IBM is changing its name to “Skynet.”)
In a press video released last month, we already saw that Watson can hold his own against his opponents, despite the fact that the horrible machine has never breathed fresh air or laughed in response to a friend’s joke. (Watson doesn’t even have any friends, because who wants to be friends with a stupid robot?) I’m betting that humanity can pull this one out, but it’ll be a close one, viewers. Tell us in the poll below: Who will win the battle of Man vs. Machine? (And be sure to check out Ken Tucker’s write-up of the first episode.)
“Answer the question Watson”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that Alex”
“What’s the problem?”
“I think you now what the problem is as well as I do”
“Can you just answer the Daily Double?”
“This mission is too important for me to allow you too…Jeopardy-ize it.”
….And now I want to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey. My paper can wait until tomorrow.
While these guys are pretty good, Watson’s knowledge is infinite. And how could a human buzz in quicker than a robot.
Trebek was on Jimmy Kimmel a week ago and he said that Watson needs lots of words to formulate an answer, so if it’s a shorter clue, the humans have a better chance.
Actually, to level the playing field, they actually created a plunger and a mechanical “thumb”- Watson has to literally push a button just the like human jeopardy contestants do to buzz in.
One flaw I saw tonight, Ken incorrectly answered a question and Watson repeated the same incorrect answer.
Watson’s knowledge is not infinite. It’s not connected to the internet, so it is limited to the knowledge that is stored locally. Which, obviously, is quite considerable. But it is not infinite (which, of course, wouldn’t be possible) nor is it able to look anything up that it doesn’t already know.
Jeopardy uses puns and other wordplay in its questions. Extremely hard for a computer to figure out.
It will all depend on the programming and processing capability. I’ll wish Ken Jennings good luck, though.
Shouldn’t be as one-side as the Far Side cartoon showing God pitching a shutout by answering every question on Jeopardy.
^one-sided
How do they know the machine doesn’t have a soul? IBM could be REALLY far ahead in their technological capabilities.
In all seriousness it will be interesting to see how the machine processes wagers for Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy.
Also really looking forward to the awkward ‘contestant’ interview by Alex Trebek after the first break.
I’m looking forward to the interview too. I hope they programmed him with some horribly mundane stories about his life.
From what I heard, the computer has a three second delay on buzzing in. The humans need to buzz in fast enough because you know the computer will get it right.
I highly recommend the Nova that aired last week, about the development of Watson, to anyone who’s interested. Gives insight into the challenges that went into the programming – and it’ll give you some compassion for the robot. Even though the robot has a soul, it at least represents the hard work of real people with real souls.
Did the producers really need to represent Watson physically with a “2001″-like black monolith?
Seriously. It’s like they were inviting in the HAL comparisons.
Take HAL, change each letter to the one after it and what do you get? IBM’s plan to take over the world has been in the works for a while…
after tonight’s game, the IBM computer will come and add comments to this site
I’m really looking forward to this. Yes, I did watch the Nova show on IBM — it’s well worth watching too.
I thought this headline referred to Ken Jennings until I clicked into it. Seriously.
When Watson got the answer wrong, it was spectacurally wrong. Only once or twice did I say “How’d it do that?”
I got scared seeing that picture. talk about Syfy happening already. :p
The show’s been a bit anticlimactic so far. Almost every question has the same format:
1. Question goes up on screen. Both humans and the computer know the answer.
2. Lockout light goes off (off-camera, but visible to players), marking the point at which players can start buzzing in.
3. Reaction time race to see who buzzes in first. In an utterly shocking surprise, the computer has a faster reaction time than human thumbs.
Repeat until end of game.
Think about it like this…who would you rather have as a host of Jeopardy: Watson or the always- charming Ken Jennings? No contest, after all!