[Novalug] Jeopardy - Computer As Contestant, Redux

Bonnie Dalzell bdalzell@qis.net
Tue Feb 15 23:06:24 EST 2011


On Tue, 15 Feb 2011, Roger W. Broseus wrote:

> Watson (IBM's name for its computer) tied with contestant on Jeopardy.

I really enjoyed the episode.

Watson ended up the second around well ahead of the other two contestants.

How much of an advantage does it have in the button push speed?



>
> Rhetorically, guess what OS is running? You guessed it: Linux.
>
> Excerpts:
> +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
> NEW YORK (AP) — In the "Jeopardy!" battle of man vs. machine, man and machine
> were neck-and-neck on Monday.
>
> Human player Brad Rutter and the supercomputer named Watson ended an initial
> round tied at $5,000. The other challenger, human Ken Jennings, was far behind
> with $2,000.
>
> Rutter (the show's all-time money-winner with $3.25 million) and Jennings (who
> has the longest winning streak at 74 games) are the most successful players in
> "Jeopardy!" history. Watson, named for IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, is
> powered by 10 racks of computer servers running the **Linux** operating
> system. (emphasis added)
>
> "You are about to witness what may prove to be an historic competition," host
> Alex Trebek told viewers at the top of the answer-and-question quiz show.
>
> No question, Watson proved to be an amazing competitor — maybe even a little
> creepy in the speed and accuracy it displayed.
> .
> .
> .
> The exhibition tournament will continue with the Double Jeopardy and Final
> Jeopardy rounds of the first game airing Tuesday and a second, complete game
> airing Wednesday. The overall winner will collect $1 million.
>
> The bouts were taped at the IBM research center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.,
> last month. Both men and Watson have managed to keep the final outcome under
> wraps.
> +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
>
> The full story is at
>
> http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/02/Information-Tech-Watson-paces-humans-in-Round-1-of-three-Jeopardy-matches/
>
> --
> Roger W. Broseus - Linux User
>     Email:RogerB@bronord.com
>     Web Site:www.bronord.com
>
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                        Bonnie Dalzell, MA
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