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IBM's Watson takes Harvard, MIT business students to school, drops the mic
There was a massacre in Boston the other night, and Watson had blood all over his hands. The IBM supercomputer and undisputed Jeopardy champ made a virtual appearance in Beantown this week, ostensibly as part of a symposium on the ways in which advanced analytics could reshape business. In reality, though, he only showed up to remind everyone that he's really smart. During the event, Watson squared off in a Jeopardy scrimmage against two groups of students from some of the most prestigious business schools in the world -- Harvard Business School, and MIT's Sloan School of Management. The brainiac b-schoolers (including two former Jeopardy contestants) did remarkably well for the first two rounds; Harvard managed to get within $1,800 of the machine going into Final Jeopardy, and even held the lead at one point, following a gutsy Daily Double (MIT didn't fare so well, but hey, we're all human, right?). The wheels came off, however, once the battle entered Act III, when Watson pulled away for the win. Both the computer and Team Harvard answered the final question correctly, but Watson wisely bet just enough to keep the Ivy Leaguers at bay. When the smoke cleared, Watson was left standing with $53,601, Harvard finished with $42,399 and MIT came in a distant third, with $100. Adding insult to injury is the fact that Watson wasn't even in the same building as his muggle competitors -- nor, for that matter, was he in the same state. IBM kept all of the machine's processors and memory chips at its Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. Watson had already come up with answers to the questions prior to this week's showdown, but placed wages, chose categories and buzzed in responses in real-time. According to IBM, Watson's presence wouldn't have changed the outcome of the game, which was followed by a discussion on the effects that similar technologies could have on the financial world. The most immediate impact? Bruised egos. Re-live the event at IBM's liveblog below, or find more information in the PR after the break.
Industry panel says MMOs are just getting started
At a recent panel discussion at the prestigious Harvard Business School, six influential members of the MMO developer community came together to debate the future of the burgeoning business of massively multiplayer online games. The panel included such dignitaries as former Blizzard team lead Mark Kern, Second Life creator Philip Rosedale, Red Sox ace and 38 Studios funder Curt Schilling.And what, I hear you ask, did this illustrious group have to say about the the MMO industry? The focus, as you might assume given the venue, was on the financial viability and growth potential within the MMO sphere. The panel seemed to agree that with only 15 percent of self-identified "gamers" currently playing MMOs (saying nothing of the casual market) the industry has a lot of growth potential if they can manage to deliver products that are attractive to people beyond first and second generation adopters. They also talked at some length about how MMOs could be more ably integrated into a browser experience, as the visual experience of a game like Second Life grows organically into a sort of graphical Web 3.0.It's an interesting discussion to listen to, especially with the credentials that the panelists brought to the table. I'm still not completely sold on the concept of MMOs transcending the "game" label and becoming the focus of the next generation of web development, but I've been wrong about this sort of thing before. I guess we'll just have to see then, won't we?
