The folks at IBM can be very proud of their new supercomputer child dubbed Watson. After a three day bout of playing humans on the hit TV series Jeopardy, Watson wins.
Many people might say well its a computer, it knows all the answers. Yes and no. As brilliant as Watson may be there are still many things that we as humans take for granted in our normal speaking meanings. The other day Nova had an incredible special that took viewers for a walk into the world of IBM's Supercomputer Watson project. They gave us a great look at the good bad and ugly sometimes of what the Watson crew sees and deals with on a daily basis. Its isn't all ice creams and lolly pops, there is a lot of hard work that goes into this project and it shows.
When getting Watson ready for this challenge they created a mock up Jeopardy set with a smart allec host who at every chance made cracks against Watson when he made a mistake. Watson is still a child for all intensive purposes. But, he is learning and everyday getting better. We saw on the show how Watson had all this amazing information in his memory banks. Then by using logic went through the options to figure out what the correct answer would be to the question.
But sometimes he did have problems such as with roman numerals and even simple things like the word dead. Where a person says he is dead and Watson replys how does it feel being dead today? Not understanding when a person is dead they are dead. But thats ok, he is a growing supercomputer and getting better everyday.
So even though he may have made some mistakes, i think its an awesome achievement to have him win at the game of Jeopardy. Its definitely a step in the right direction. My hat goes off to all the people at IBM who helped make this great computer possible. Also, Watson you did fantastic and i'm very proud of you. Keep up the great work.
Many people might say well its a computer, it knows all the answers. Yes and no. As brilliant as Watson may be there are still many things that we as humans take for granted in our normal speaking meanings. The other day Nova had an incredible special that took viewers for a walk into the world of IBM's Supercomputer Watson project. They gave us a great look at the good bad and ugly sometimes of what the Watson crew sees and deals with on a daily basis. Its isn't all ice creams and lolly pops, there is a lot of hard work that goes into this project and it shows.
When getting Watson ready for this challenge they created a mock up Jeopardy set with a smart allec host who at every chance made cracks against Watson when he made a mistake. Watson is still a child for all intensive purposes. But, he is learning and everyday getting better. We saw on the show how Watson had all this amazing information in his memory banks. Then by using logic went through the options to figure out what the correct answer would be to the question.
But sometimes he did have problems such as with roman numerals and even simple things like the word dead. Where a person says he is dead and Watson replys how does it feel being dead today? Not understanding when a person is dead they are dead. But thats ok, he is a growing supercomputer and getting better everyday.
So even though he may have made some mistakes, i think its an awesome achievement to have him win at the game of Jeopardy. Its definitely a step in the right direction. My hat goes off to all the people at IBM who helped make this great computer possible. Also, Watson you did fantastic and i'm very proud of you. Keep up the great work.
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