Jump to content

Jeopardy IBM Challenge. WATSON.


LEVEL 75 PALADIN

Recommended Posts

This forum is supported by the 12ozProphet Shop, so go buy a shirt and help support!
This forum is brought to you by the 12ozProphet Shop.
This forum is brought to you by the 12oz Shop.

Part of me thinks it's unfair that it gets the text question at the same time as the question is unveiled. Of course the computer can parse it faster and therefore buzz in quicker. It's still beyond impressive it gets the right answers, but I feel like it's doing it before a human can parse the question. Perhaps that's the contest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is probably the opposite of what was intended but I think this demonstrates just how far behind computers are when compared to the human brain.

Not going to spell out point for point why but I think the computer is way behind in the overall measure of brain/computing power.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the main advantage the machine has is how fast it rings in to answer. ken and brad probably both know most of the answers but aren't able to ring in fast enough to beat the machine to answering.

 

this is pretty much just free advertising for ibm like when deep blue played gary kasparov and beat him. their stock went through the roof. there were also allegations that deep blue had help in beating kasparov. publicity stuntin'.

 

From this link: http://www.livescience.com/12859-3-strengths-weaknesses-watson-computer-jeopardy.html

 

 

— Watson cannot time its buzz-in to the reading of a clue or "buy time."While playing "Jeopardy!" contestants can buzz in when a light goes on after host Alex Trebek stops reading the clue (click early on your button and you're penalized a crucial quarter-second). Watson does not have speech recognition software that allows it to "hear" Trebek; instead, clues are transmitted electronically to the machine, so it gets to "see" a clue the same time that a contestant does.

 

Due to concerns that Watson could beat humans to the buzzer, IBM hooked Watson up to a signaling device that requires a physical pressing of a button, the same as human players. Ultimately in this setup, however, the advantage goes to us air-breathers because we can time our buzz-in to Trebek's clue reading.

 

"The reaction time of a machine is faster than a human, but that's not what matters in "Jeopardy!" — what matters is timing," said IBM's David Gondek, a researcher on the Watson project. "The best players read the clue, try to determine when Alex will finish reading, and then buzz in." Gondek said that "Watson is a strong buzzer, but Watson is not anticipating Alex's reading, it is reacting to a signal. A human can come in before Watson."

 

Also, as mentioned above, Watson is not programmed to buzz in until it has high confidence in an answer; a human can buzz in, though, and by rule have five seconds to work with before having to provide an answer. Human players, in other words, can take a risk and buy themselves time to come up with an answer, which is not a bad gambit if the category is an area of familiarity. Watson does not have this strategic luxury.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's exactly how I thought it was going for the humans as well. If I could answer a good majority of the questions, then Ken and Brad most likely knew them as well. In fact, if you watched Ken when he was on his winning streak, he rang in quite often and just guessed, which should, in theory, allow him to beat Watson to the punch every time.

 

I think if you gave them a rematch three months from now, Ken or Brad would probably beat the machine. Most people that get on Jeopardy are smart as fuck, but succumb to human error with the signaling device or just get nervous under pressure. I'm hella good at it when I'm on my couch but I guarantee it's a different story if I ever get on the show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...