The IBM supercomputer Watson took down two of Jeopardy's greatest this week in the three- day Man vs. Machine special. It wasn't even close.
Last month, we were introduced to Watson, the Jeopardy playing supercomputer who was challenged with the rather daunting task of competing against two of the best human players. In the demonstration match in January, Watson won with $4,400 and Ken Jennings, the most well known Jeopardy champion, taking second place with $3,400. During the demo, it seemed that timing was a huge weakness for the computer as it was often beaten to the buzzer by quick thinking Jennings.
This time, by the end of day 2, Jennings (a 74-time champion) scored $4,800, 20-time champion Brad Rutter scored $10,400 and Watson had racked up an amazing $35,734 in winnings. It seemed that this go-round, timing wasn't an issue. Out of 30 answers, Watson rang in first on 25 of them. Additionally, he got an amazing 24 of them right.
In a rather small victory for the human competitors, they both beat Watson in Final Jeopardy. They both knew which city's largest airport is named after a World War II hero and second largest after a World War II battle. Jennings and Rutter answered with “What is Chicago?” while Watson answered “What is Toronto?”
On the final day of competition, it ended with Watson earning a total of $77,147, Jennings with $24,000 and Rutter with $21,600. For winning all three days of the competition, Watson (and IBM) will win a $1million prize, which IBM says they plan to donate to World Vision and World Community Grid.
Watson is an amazing computer and his victory was a victory for the researchers and developers on IBM's team. It was a culmination of years of research. Watson is able to calculate hundreds of algorithms simultaneously and it has even been designed to understand language complexities like puns and search its databases for the correct answer. The computer is powered by 90 32-core IBM Power 750 Express servers with a total of 16 terabytes of memory.
At the end of the tournament, accepting defeat with good humor, Ken Jennings wrote on his blue display screen “I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords.”
And, with 74 Jeopardy wins to his name, I, for one, am not entirely sure he isn't a computer.
Did you watch the match? What did you think? Let me know in the comments.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for TechCareersBlog. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.
Register or sign in today!