"On Thursday IBM demonstrated Watson, a computer consisting of a roomful of the company's Power7 processors. But the real genius in the system is that it can understand language well enough to figure out the wordplay that makes up a Jeopardy! question. On Feb. 14, 15 and 16 Watson will take on two Jeopardy! champions -- - Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings."
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/100879/20110113/ibm-s-watson-computer-to-play-jeopardy.htm#
(Contributed by Anthony)
Here is a spoof on Watson: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/14/jeopardy-robot-watson_n_823115.html
This is cool. But every language is unique. In a very base way the computer is able to simulate incongruity resolution. Most jeapordy questions are based on simple word play that creates an incongruous juxtaposition which requires cognitive effort as well as previous skills in the language to resolve. I think this computer falls short of simulating true cognition, though. It has probably been programmed with the rules of english and can work through the logic of the language, but for korean or Russian a brand new set of programming rules would have to be programmed. Not to mention if the computer has a huge wealth of information and all it has to do is access it on demand, I mean we do that everyday its called Google. The computer only has to search key words in the question, then combined with the programmed rules of the english incongruity it can create a simple answer. It's kind of like a language calculator
This is cool, but is it flawless? There has to be some glitches in which the computer doesn't know what the human is actually saying. The article even says that the computer had trouble clarifying JFK."This president said he was a jelly donut," would stump most computers, who have a lot of trouble with the implied meaning of words. (The answer is "who is John F. Kennedy?"). Furthermore, I agree with what Tony says about the computer falling short of simulating true cognition.
I just think that's crazy. It would be good for medical reasons if this really did work, but there are so many languages and variations in language. Even just in English. It would be very difficult for the computer to actually know and understand what is being asked in the Jeopardy game. Inevitably, if it does work, there were definitely be some glitches that will need to be fixed. And who knows if they will even be able to be fixed? It just amazes me the technology we have today!
I've been hearing about this for a couple weeks and I'm not at all surprised by it. I could answer any Jeopardy question if you give me google. Someone mentioned before that all you have to do is look up key words and find the common theme in what you see. In the question about JFK, even if I didn't know that JFK was a president a simple google search of "this president said he was a jelly donut" comes up with a whole list of sites with JFK as the common theme. I could figure it out just by looking at the google search page.
Just an FYI the episodes for this start airing next week on Monday.
It is on NBC and I think that it is on at either 4 or 4:30
Heres an update after the first day.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/14/jeopardy.ibm.watson/index.html?hpt=T2