IBM's Watson to rival humans in round of Jeopardy!

IBM's already proven that a computer from its labs can take on the world's best at chess, but what'll happen when the boundaries of a square-filled board are removed? Researchers at the outfit are obviously excited to find out, today revealing that its Watson system will be pitted against brilliant Earthlings on Jeopardy! in an attempt to further artificial intelligence when it comes to semantics and searching for indexed information. Essentially, the machine will have to be remarkably labile in order to understand "analogies, puns, double entendres and relationships like size and location," something that robotic linguists have long struggled with. There's no mention of a solid date when it comes to the competition itself, but you can bet we'll be setting our DVRs whenever it's announced. Check out a video of the progress after the break.

[Via The New York Times]

[Tom Gabriele @ Apr 27th 2009 9:59AM]

not to be a downer...but isnt jeopardy still a square-filled board?

[Scott @ Apr 27th 2009 9:59AM]

suck it trebeck

[Patriks7 @ Apr 27th 2009 10:13AM]

Best comment of this thread, no matter if someone says otherwise! :p

[joe23521 @ Apr 27th 2009 10:37AM]

You mean "WHAT IS the best comment of this thread?"

[Luigi193 @ Apr 27th 2009 2:16PM]

You think you're pretty smart, don't you, Trebek? What with your Diego mustache and your greasy hair!

[speedbacon @ Apr 27th 2009 5:40PM]

I'll take Ape tit for $400

[Relay @ Apr 27th 2009 10:00AM]

They should have named it Turd Furgeson. Ha! Turd Furgeson. That's a funny name.

[SE master @ Apr 27th 2009 10:00AM]

ROFL! IBM is so debt in money they cheat ABC out of money by making there robots answer everything correctly as they rake in the money for them. Kidding don't worry this sounds cool.

[Jeremy W @ Apr 27th 2009 2:47PM]

Jeopardy has nothing to do with ABC, it's produced by Sony Pictures Television.

[fyre182 @ Apr 27th 2009 5:52PM]

ibm really isnt all that in debt . . . at all it still remains one of (if not) the most profitable IT company in the world

[Bas @ Apr 27th 2009 10:03AM]

"Wassup Holmes?"
"What, son?
"He's running up the hill, see?"
"Fast, on his trail!"
"But Holmes, the girls want some."
"No you can't."
"Why not?"
"Elementary school, my dear Watson."

[NeoJew @ Apr 27th 2009 10:39AM]

Watson is a pedo?

[JimeneX @ Apr 27th 2009 10:07AM]

What is 'The Eslavement of the Human Race by us robots'?

No?

Oh...What is 'Ketchup'?

[electron @ Apr 27th 2009 10:08AM]

now that... is awesome :D

[sweet greggo @ Apr 27th 2009 10:09AM]

I'm feeling much better now, Dave.

[dannysmell @ Apr 27th 2009 10:11AM]

Didn't they already do this with that "Ken Jennings" robot?

[Mike @ Apr 27th 2009 10:42AM]

Actually, they're already done--the machine already plays Jeopardy as well as Sean Connery!

[Eric @ Apr 27th 2009 10:25AM]

If a computer can beat a human in Jeopardy, I suspect the organization that should be most scared is Google wondering what IBM might have up its sleeve for it's own search engine.

[Zoe @ Apr 27th 2009 10:33AM]

Say hello to Skynet...

[whowhatme @ Apr 27th 2009 11:26AM]

if watson can answer that final jeopardy question, it will mean that he has already become self-aware O.O

[Razloga @ Apr 27th 2009 10:42AM]

If the robot doesn't answer "Kebert Xela" to at least one problem, it sucks...

[Aaron @ Apr 27th 2009 10:48AM]

If Jeopardy (i.e. Sony who owns the show) and IBM structure the show so that for the first few days the audience is not aware which of the contestants is a computer and ask the audience to identify the computerat the end of each show. It would be a great dataset for a Turing test.

[telepheedian @ Apr 27th 2009 1:43PM]

Come to think of it, this could be a clever ad for the Cell processor.

[Rich @ Apr 27th 2009 10:51AM]

Wait. You gave it access to Google?

I for one welcome our new Jeopardy playing overlords.

[BigD145 @ Apr 27th 2009 1:27PM]

"What is Google."

[Arnold @ Apr 27th 2009 11:06AM]

oh snap, I got wood!
/need a AI research gig BAD!

[Magallanes @ Apr 27th 2009 11:09AM]

IBM beat us (humans) in chess because the server cheated, instead to think in the best move, this server used a hugest database of predefined moves (many moves invented by human).

So, Jeopardy is a "piece of cake", the server must remember almost any possible question/answer in Jeopardy. Of course, the Achilles Heel is to avoid question involving math and history and directly ask about unicorn.

Silly IBM, Jeopardy are for humans.

[Le Big Mac @ Apr 27th 2009 11:13AM]

How do they program it to have imperfect reaction times for buzzing in? Or is it a standard/average delay?

[Xenoterranos @ Apr 30th 2009 5:30PM]

My thoughts exactly. The machine could technically always beat the humans to the buzzer, then use that 2 seconds after the buzzer to research the answer, and finally answer. The delay would be near imperceptible to Alex, especially if you take into account some of the multi-second hemming and hawing some of the contestants do.

That'd be great if it had a ridiculous default answer, for when it couldn't find the real answer in time...

Alex: "Robotron 4000, your answer"
ROBOTRON4000: "Uuuuummmmm...Errrrr...."
Alex: "I'm sorry, no, Julia how ab-"
ROBOTRON4000: "I'M THE COCK OF THE WALK."
Alex: "Yeesss...thank you for that".

[slyd3z @ Apr 27th 2009 11:30AM]

"I'll take 'The Enslavement of Human Kind' for $400, Alex."

[Aspartame @ Apr 27th 2009 11:34AM]

PEW-PEW, PEW-PEW, PEW-PEW

[ED @ Apr 27th 2009 6:55PM]

What is the sound of lazorz?

[Aspartame @ Apr 27th 2009 8:55PM]

The Daily Double, of course.

[Clark @ Apr 27th 2009 11:35AM]

I predict at least two or three separate occasions stretching some 5 years forward where they trot Ken Jennings and a few others out to play against Watson, as it loses first but gets closer and closer every time until finally Jennings loses his cool during Double Jeopardy and Watson opens an insurmountable lead, coasting to a $1 wager in Final Jeopardy and merely answers "I WIN" for the final question.

PS Apparently Jennings was quite the master of buzzer timing, too. I think you just have to wait until Trebek is done with the question, so it could maybe scan the displayed question and then time Trebek's speaking cadence and get it down to milisecond precision.

[Chad @ Apr 27th 2009 11:42AM]

Alex Trebek: Let's meet our next Jeopardy contestant. Please welcome....John Henry
John Henry: Hello, would you like to play a game with me?
Alex Trebek: Of course John that's why we're here.
John Henry: Oh good, I like playing games.
Alex Trebek: Next to John Henry we have Watson
Watson: H.E.L.L.O.
Alex Trebek: Finally give a warm welcome to Skynet!
Skynet: DESTROY ALL HUMANS!
Alex Trebek: Now Now Skynet cheating is not All...ARGH@#$!@$!

[Axton @ Apr 27th 2009 11:49AM]

Has someone actually checked to make sure this isn't just Ken Jennings in a box?

[James Dumoulin @ Apr 27th 2009 12:16PM]

if thats watson in the picture beside the human, how the hell are they going to fit all of that behind the answering booth?

[Brandon Cruz @ Apr 27th 2009 12:42PM]

Ultimate facepalm.

[LPD @ Apr 27th 2009 12:27PM]

A friend of mine at IBM says that Watson can come up with the right answers most of the time but the big problem is getting it to preface the answer with "What is ". For some reason that part of the solution still alludes them today.

[loopyoyo @ Apr 27th 2009 1:24PM]

lets just hope it uses google as its brain and not msn or yahoo

[Varun5 @ Apr 27th 2009 1:45PM]

isn't this the Yahoo! Answers bot we've all been waiting for?

[electronymous @ Apr 27th 2009 1:40PM]

Alex Trebek is training his robot army to take over and eliminate the US and leave Canada as the leader of the free world!

[troy @ Apr 27th 2009 2:30PM]

I am now telling the computer *exactly* what it can do with a life time supply of chocolate.

[Rick @ Apr 27th 2009 3:07PM]

..."size and location..." ?? I thought size didn't matter?

[default.aspx @ Apr 28th 2009 12:51AM]

This is the new Deep Blue of Jeopardy!

[lxuke @ Apr 28th 2009 2:31AM]

this is what happens when you smoke weed kids