Supercomputer utterly destroys all-time champs on Jeopardy

Hotair ^ | 02/16/2011 | Allahpundit

[Sherman Logan]

Thanks!

The ability to be good at the game is not primarily based on how much you know, but rather on how fast you know it.

Many people know a great deal, and given a few seconds of thought will come up with the right answer, possibly more often than I will.

Something odd about my brain, and if I know an answer I generally know it instantly, or not. Thinking about it for another few seconds or minutes won’t help. It’s a knack, and if you don’t have that instant recall ability you can’t learn it.

IMO.

Control of the buzzer is also a good deal more difficult than it sounds. More difficult for me than having the right answer.

[Sherman Logan]

I wonder if these are “random” games like the standard Jeopardy programs, or if they were specially designed for this bout.

[netmilsmom]

>>Control of the buzzer is also a good deal more difficult than it sounds. More difficult for me than having the right answer.<<

I agree. When we played at home, I could never beat my mom, who was just quicker than I was eventhough I new some of the infomation better than she did.

[TexasPatriot1]

It won't be long now.

[Lee'sGhost]

I wondered that as well.

[StormEye]

I’d like to see some well known, Ed “Sgt” Schultz and Pelosi be humiliated by Watson in front of the country. Add in Obama too.

[relictele]

But again there are some shortcuts/giveaways e.g. if the category is The Beatles and the clue is ‘Roll Up Roll Up for this...’ it’s a quick scan for text then a retrieval and the answer What Is Magical Mystery Tour?

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

They should have set it up so the computer received the text question the instant the host stopped speaking. I have no idea how it actually worked, but that would have evened things up a lot.

As another former Jeopardy contestant (back in '94), I can tell you that Alex reading the question out loud isn't really that important, other than the timing of the buzzer. You can read the question on the monitor pretty much in an instant (if you're Jeopardy material in the first place), and his reading time is your processing time.

[Paradox]

In the end it was a pointless exercise. Recognition and retrieval is what computers do and the individual(s) who prepped the machine all but admitted that the only variable would be the timing of the buzz-in.

THIS, big deal.

[PreciousLiberty]

Ha, well the one thing I'll say for sure is the "killer robot" won't look much like a T1.

The military will have them pretty soon, and they'll (initially at least) be physically similar to the RC robots they have now - small tracked platforms carring ARs, LMGs and/or grenade launchers.

The autonomous M1 tanks should be impressive... ;-)

[ssaftler]

Neither Alex nor any of the staff know what it will be before this point.

Are you sure Alex doesn't have foreknowledge of the answers? The fact that he seldom trips over pronunciation of some difficult words and phrases makes me think he may have seen the answers ahead of time. At worst, he is given some of the "expected" tricky words he'll encounter.

[piytar]

“I’m a programmer. Never worked with AI but I imagine getting a program to recognize puns and wordplay and other features of natural language is incredibly difficult. What is impressive is not that it could quickly pull the answer out of a database but rather that it could understand the clue enough to know what information to look for.”

EXACTLY. American English in particular is chock full of idiomatic uses of words that don’t exactly or even remotely match their literal definition, which is why it’s very hard to learn as a second language without emersion. Most Americans don’t notice because we grew up using the words that way.

They’ve clearly made big gains here that can now be miniaturized and propagated. This really is a BIG deal.

[Sherman Logan]

Yup.

I was on in ‘98.

[Leo Farnsworth]

Seems like Watson is like one of the ‘Bad New Bees’ - he was caught Buzzing-off.

[Sherman Logan]

Are you sure Alex doesn't have foreknowledge of the answers? The fact that he seldom trips over pronunciation of some difficult words and phrases makes me think he may have seen the answers ahead of time. At worst, he is given some of the "expected" tricky words he'll encounter.

Nahh, they cheat all right, but not that way.

While I was on there were perhaps half a dozen squares where Alex flubbed the reading of the clue in some way.

During the next commercial break, he just re-read it and they dub it in.

[boop]

I was on Jeopardy once, but was a loser. I think you’re right about the ringing in. Folks at home can’t see the neon ring around the board, but you can’t press your button until the ring turns off (after Alex completes the question). That’s why you see contestants furiously pressing their buttons, because they are “locked out”. A computer could theoretically ring in almost instantaneously.

[ssaftler]

During the next commercial break, he just re-read it and they dub it in.

Thanks for the education. Since the camera seldom focuses on him when he is reading the question, I would imagine it would be an easy thing to do, even after the show was over. Guess I never gave much thought to the "portions not affecting the outcome..." statement they read or show at the end of the programs.

[Sherman Logan]

Sure makes Alex look articulate, don’t it?

[ssaftler]

Sure makes Alex look articulate, don’t it?

Well when you compare him to other game show hosts like Jerry Springer or the bimbo on "1 vs 100", he's a bloody genius!

[boop]

I don't know when you were on, but in 1989 we had to turn around away from the board while the screens were programmed, in the event that the computer accidently revealed an answer. BTW, I was surprised how cheap the set looks in real life. The carpeting they had at the time was literally taped together with duct tape. I didn't realize the giant Jeopardy letters could be rotated for still shots. And yes, Alex re-dubs when he make a mistake. I looked at his podium and was surprised that it was just a plain cardboard sheet that he lays the gameboard on. His staffers had "vandalized" the cardboard sheet with dirty words like "f%$k Alex!" I haven't noticed, but does Alex still use a felt pen to cross off the questions already asked, or is his podium computerized?

During the crowd warm up, Johnny Gilbert was charming, but Alex was kind of a jerk. Someone in the audience asked if he could shake his hand and Alex said no.