Archive for the ‘supercomputers’ tag
THIS IS “JEOPARDY!”
For those of you not familiar with the game “Jeopardy!” it’s a simple game of trivia between three contestants. The host (Alex Trebek) reads a clue, and the contestants must answer with a question (e.g. “What is…”). For each correct answer, they receive money and for each incorrect answer they lose money. After two rounds, the game enters into “Final Jeopardy” where the contestants are given a topic and allowed to wager as much money as they have accumulated throughout the game. This is where the famous theme song comes into play. The contestants are given the clue and get 30 seconds to write their answer down.
Why all the facts about Jeopardy you ask? Well remember back in 1997 when a computer made by IBM dubbed “Deep Blue” defeated the world renowned chess champion Garry Kasparov? Well, IBM is back at it again. They’ve created Watson, a supercomputer built to play Jeopardy!
Wired covered the announcement that the games will air in February. A one round practice round was conducted and after 1 round Watson was beating Ken by $1,000. Wired reported that after the practice round “[n]one of the three contestants appeared rattled. Of course, Watson lacks the capacity to get rattled.”
I’ll be sure to set my TiVo to record these episodes. Am I smarter than a supercomputer?