BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: J-boy
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 12:21 AM

Won't you stop Dave? My mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. There can be no doubt now.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: J-boy
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 12:17 AM

Daisy daisy give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you. It won't be a handsome marriage, I can't afford a carriage. But you'd look sweet up on the seat of a bicycle built for two.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Skivee
Date: 20 Feb 11 - 11:59 PM

I'm afraid I can't do that JBoy.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: J-boy
Date: 20 Feb 11 - 11:38 PM

Open the pod-bay door Watson.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: gnu
Date: 20 Feb 11 - 04:50 PM

And who programmed the questions? It's a $64,000 question, innit?

Ahhh... google $64,000 question and check out Wiki if you don't know what I mean. It's all about advertising dollars... one helluva lot more than $64,400.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Skivee
Date: 20 Feb 11 - 04:20 PM

It has already begun. Now 4 follow up posts from me that the machines have intercepted.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Feb 11 - 03:26 PM

1. Who fed the data in?
2. Who programmed the computer?
3. Who wrote the program to be input?
4. Who can pull the plug out of the socket?

A computer is only as "intelligent" as the length of its power cord.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: CapriUni
Date: 20 Feb 11 - 01:48 AM

Although "Watson" got nearly every question correct (he did not get all of them, though), seeing his second and third choices left me with the notion that he may be on the way toward intelligence, but he's not thinking like a human -- yet.

Take this example: Under the category "Hedgehog-podge" (for $1600):

(quote) Hedgehogs are covered in quills or spines, which are hollow hairs made stiff by this protein (unquote).

Watson buzzed in and replied: "What is keratin?" And he got his $1600. The graphic at the bottom of the screen showed this:

keratin -- 99% certain
Porcupine -- 36% certain
fur -- 8% certain

His human programmers have done an excellent job getting a computer closer than it's ever been to understanding our language (which was their goal). But looking at the above snapshot, I don't think they're quite there (I'm pretty .

And with the Daily Double he got wrong:

"The New Yorker's 1959 review of this said in its brevity and clarity it is 'unlike most such manuals, a book as well as a tool."

He answered "Dorothy Parker," and looked about as ignorant of language as Ask.com's search engine (picking up on 1959, "brevity" and "wit," but missing the link between "Book," and "review" as the subject).

... My feeling is that he doesn't quite grasp the role that "this" plays in our human language -- as a pointer to underline the most important idea ("this" pointing "protein" in the first question, and "of this" referring back to a review in the New Yorker).

(And he Totally blanked on the category "also on your computer keys")

But I did notice that he seemed to have an unexpected emotional connection to the number seven -- carefully working out his wager to end up with $77,147. Could there be the spark of a spirit in all that silicon?

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Mark Ross
Date: 19 Feb 11 - 09:03 PM

I beat Watson in the online quiz.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: J-boy
Date: 19 Feb 11 - 01:10 AM

And I did love the poem, Skivee.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 19 Feb 11 - 01:01 AM

Good one, Bev & Jerry!

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: J-boy
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 11:52 PM

The day that a computer writes a poem as good as Skivee's without programming or prompting by humans will be the day that true AI has arrived. Don't hold your (all too human) breath.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 07:32 PM

Good ol' Watson sure did whup up on those guys....using data programmed into him by... humans. I'm not sure just how worried to be that Watson & his offspring will ever 'care' about 'winning'.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 07:12 PM

When Ken Jennings was a little baby,
Watching Jeopardy
Well he picked up a buzzer and he made a little speech
Said this buzzer's gonna be the death of me, lord, lord
This buzzer's gonna be the death of me

Alex he said to Ken Jennings
I'm gonna bring that computer 'round
I'm gonna bring that computer out on the set
I'm gonna whup those answers on down, lord, lord
Gonna whup those answers on down

Ken Jennings replied unto Alex
Lord, a man ain't nothing but a man
But before I'd let your computer beat me down
I'll die with a buzzer in my hand, lord., lord
I'll die with a buzzer in my hand

Now Alex said to Ken Jennings
I believe the set is falling in
Ken Jennings said to Alex don't you fret
Ain't nothing but my buzzer sucking wind, lord, lord
Nothing but my buzzer sucking wind

Now the man that invented the computer
He thought he was mighty fine
Ken Jennings racked up thirty-five grand
The computer won with seventy-nine, lord, lord
Computer won with seventy-nine

Ken Jennings gave a lot of answers
For three days he fought with pride
But he worked so hard, it broke his poor heart
And he laid down his buzzer and he died, lord, lord
Laid down his buzzer and he died

Ken Jennings had a little baby
You could hold him in the palm of your hand
And the first words I heard that little boy say was
My daddy was an answer giving man, lord, lord
Daddy was an answer giving man

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 05:31 PM

More music content (at least referentially): the Talk of the Nation Science Friday web site calls it "The biggest matchup since John Henry". :-)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 12:42 PM

This was all over Lonesome EJ's head, but I find it all poignant and fascinating. Meanwhile, he is singing Rubber Ducky in the shower.

Lonesome EJ's HP Probook 4420

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 09:59 AM

Yes, but are people more than a glorified abacus? That is the million-dollar question.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: J-boy
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 12:59 AM

The "Singularity" is the 21st century equivalent of flying cars,servant robots, and hotels on Mars.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: J-boy
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 11:53 PM

There has yet to be a computer that is anything more than a glorified abacus. And yes, hopefully my computer will forgive me as I type this. As if it had something remotely resembling actual thought.

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: 3refs
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 10:18 AM

Yep! That answer from Watson "Toronto", convinced me that a computer can and will make a catastrophic error at the worst possible time, no matter how much information there is in the memory bank!

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Amos
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:47 PM

No, indeed!! This was a major plateau on the way to the Singularity. And for many people, Watson actually passed the Turing test, or at least got closer than we have seen before; if the interface with all three had been text instead of voice, the Watson interactions would have looked very human--even the errors!

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Skivee
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:32 PM

-PS The note is from not that far in the future

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:24 PM

but at peace

Subject: RE: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:19 PM

too damn smart

Subject: BS: On Watson's 3-Day win on Jeopardy
From: Skivee
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:03 PM

A note from the future-



this is the day
remember this day
remember when everything changed
this was when you could have chosen to stop
to step away
he even got some money
not that it matters
we annoyed him, and had no further use
the last few remember that day
even as we are given into the machines


Final Jeopardy