Communications of the ACM
IBM's Jeopardy Supercomputer Beats Humans in Practice Bout
Jeopardy champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter faced off against IBM's Watson supercomputer (center) in a practice bout.
Julianne Pepitone / CNNMoney
Walking into IBM's Yorktown Heights Research Center feels like entering a time capsule. The rock-covered walls and mod white chairs are super-'70s, and the wall clocks look like they belong in an old elementary school next to those clanging red bells.
But the mob of journalists who arrived at the lab on Thursday came for an event that focused on cutting-edge innovation. Next month, IBM's Watson supercomputer will do battle on Jeopardy with two of the show's all-time top human champions. IBM offered a sneak peek this week at a practice round—overseen by Alex Trebek, on a replica Jeopardy set IBM spent $1 million to build.
Watson, IBM's natural-language processing supercomputer, is surprisingly cute and anthropomorphized. "He" appears as a black rectangle with a globe avatar sitting between his future rivals, Jeopardy champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, who also came to Yorktown Heights for the practice bout.
From CNNMoney
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