IBM's Watson bores as 'Jeopardy' big shot Sherlock - CNET

Watching IBM's Watson supercomputer make its debut tonight on "Jeopardy," one thought dominated: why, oh, why did they make him sound like Hal's diffident nephew?

This was the future freaks' big chance to make themselves acceptable to the human race. This was national television.

Watson had been created by human beings who pride themselves in their ability to teach a machine, rather than a child, to be as smart as they are. So why did they not think about giving Watson a little character? A shock of long, green hair, perhaps. Oversize purple ears would have been a plus.

At the worst, a voice resembling Morgan Freeman with a lisp would have been welcome.

Instead, this technological Trojan Horse presented himself to a nationwide audience with all the presence of boiled soot.

To be fair, it wasn't even Watson before the cameras. It was an avatar created to represent him, as his vast bulk and din wouldn't have made this a TV event for the aged, never mind the ages.

I understand that many scientists will have felt entirely giddy at the idea that a computer could compete against two "Jeopardy" superstars: a nice man from Seattle and an equally nice man who used to live in Pennsylvania but is now is hoping to be a TV star in LA.

But if this is the future, some might wish to google details of that elegant euthanasia clinic in Switzerland.

Watson performed very well. If, by performance, you mean getting quite a lot of "Jeopardy" conundrums correct.

Watson in rehearsals. He's the one in the middle.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET)

Former "Jeopardy" champion Ken Jennings, the man with a preacher's side parting and the remnants of Conan's ginger hair, stood transfixed as Watson beat him to question after question, answer after answer.

However, this is a best of three. And Jennings and fellow humanoid competitor Brad Rutter allowed the machine to strut its stuff. They knew he had to falter. This machine had never seen the bright lights before.

Perhaps sweating backstage while his avatar faced the orchestra, Watson suddenly managed to repeat one of Jennings' wrong answers.

"No, Ken said that," explained Alex Trebek, the professorial host of "Jeopardy."

If Watson had wanted to endear himself to the world, his programmers might have given him a line like: "Silly, me. I'm just a stupid ole' piece of metal."

Instead, he stood there like a nerd who's been looking for the local chess club and has stumbled into the Playboy mansion.

This first show was a little stunted, as Trebek spent considerable minutes explaining to the audience why the less familiar contestant was less expressive than some but more expensive than all.

It was a fine ad for the forthcoming IBM empire, though those with eyes for these things would have been more warmed by the footage of IBM's engineers preparing for Watson's big day. Most of them had PCs, but one was definitely stroking a Mac.

Watson's dilemma, which became increasingly clear as the show went on, was that he has to have a certain level of probability before pressing his button. Machines don't guess. That would be far too blessedly human.

The mean-spirited (i.e. excessively human) might have rejoiced on one particular exchange.

The contestants were asked to find the question to: "From the Latin for end, this is where trains can also originate."

Watson, still impassive, but allegedly 97 percent confident (his confidence levels were shown on screen when the clues were given), replied: "What is finis?" He should have considered terminus.

This was only the beginning. Tomorrow is Double and Finis Jeopardy. Wednesday, there's more. Even now, Watson is tied with Rutter on $5,000 and $3,000 ahead of the mesmerizing Jennings.

Can this possibly end well?

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IBM's 'Watson' Computer to Air on Jeopardy in February - eWeek

IBM?s ?Watson? computer will finally make its appearance on ?Jeopardy? in February, taking on two of the show?s all-time winners over a three-day span.

The game will test Watson?s abilities to think in a human-like way, not only being able to retrieve information when requested?as is done with a normal Google search request?but also to go through its vast database of information, make the necessary connections and pick up on the subtle nuances, puns and riddles necessary to answer questions in Jeopardy.

IBM?s goal in building Watson?named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson?is to create a system that can answer questions posed in natural language, and to do so quickly and correctly, according to company officials. IBM over the past few months have been running Watson through a series of 50 or so mock Jeopardy games at its Hawthorne, N.Y., research facility against some former game show participants. The question-answer machine reportedly has won some games and lost others.

?After four years, our scientific team believes that Watson is ready for this challenge based on its ability to rapidly comprehend what the Jeopardy clue is asking, analyze the information it has access to, come up with precise answers, and develop an accurate confidence in its response,? David Ferrucci, the scientist leading the IBM Research team that has created Watson, said in a Dec. 14 statement. ?Beyond our excitement for the match itself, our team is very motivated by the possibilities that Watson's breakthrough computing capabilities hold for building a smarter planet and helping people in their business tasks and personal lives." 

The Jeopardy challenge echoes the chess match in 1997, when an IBM computer called Deep Blue beat chess champion Garry Kasparov. At the time, IBM officials said Deep Blue could calculate 200 million chess moves per second based on a fixed problem.

Watson will have to work differently, however. IBM researchers want it to be able to hear the question posed in natural language and?using massively parallel processing capabilities to understand the complex questions?figure out the subtext of the request, zero in on exactly what its being sought and then find the answer.

Competing against Watson will be Ken Jennings, who broke the Jeopardy record for most consecutive games played with 74 during the 2004-2005 season and won more than $2.5 million, and Brad Rutter, who won more than $3.2 million, the most ever by a contestant. The winner will take $1 million, with second place earning $300,000 and third place $200,000. Rutter and Jennings will donate half of their winnings to charity; IBM will donate all of its winnings.

While the Jeopardy show?which will air Feb. 14-16?will be entertaining, IBM researchers say question-answer systems like Watson will have real-life impacts on business in a variety of fields, including health care, online self-service desks, and tourism, according to IBM. The computer?s ability to quickly sort through vast amounts of data and return precise answers?and then rank the confidence in those answers?also will be key to IBM?s ongoing Smarter Planet initiative, which is driving to improve the world?s infrastructures?from roads to waterways to electrical grids?by putting more intelligence into the systems.

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