Communications of the ACM
Computer Crushes Human 'jeopardy!' Champs
IBM's Watson supercomputer
Photo courtesy of IBM
IBM's Watson supercomputer trounced human champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in the second round of a Jeopardy! match. Watson beat Jennings and Rutter to the buzzer on 24 out of 30 questions.
"The actual game play was just amazing, that [Watson] would know the answers and discern which one is the correct one," says five-time Jeopardy! champion Jeffrey Spoeri. "It's a terrific experiment."
Watson has been under development at IBM Research labs for the past five years. After the first round ended in a tie between Watson and Rutter, the computer beat the human contestants to the buzzer for the first 12 questions and got all but one of them right. Watson displayed an impressive knowledge of pop culture, and also correctly answered many questions in the history, geography, art, and medicine categories. However, the audience groaned when Watson answered Toronto as the U.S. city with airports named after a World War II hero and a World War II battle.
Nevertheless, Watson finished the round with $35,734, while Rutter had $10,400 and Jennings had $4,800. The final round takes place Wednesday.
From Agence France-Presse
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