

Computer beats Jeopardy champs - awk
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2011/01/14/computer-jeopardy.html

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shasta
Anyone know how the buzzers work? It's my impression that they are disabled
until a moment after the question has been read completely, and then the first
to buzz in gets a chance to answer. I wonder if they took steps to ensure that
the computer doesn't have an edge in buzzing in first.

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StavrosK
I think that's how it works (they only get enabled after the question has been
read, while you get penalised somehow if you buzz in too early. I imagine they
built in some random delays so the computer didn't always buzz in at the
millisecond.

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klenwell
That would have been very sporting of them as I recall seeing an interview
with Jeopardy winners where they mentioned the crucial role the buzzer plays
in the game and how skill with it provides a competitive advantage.

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rianjs
Engadget has a video of the actual contest, and an interview with the IBM
guys:

[http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/13/ibms-watson-
supercomputer...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/13/ibms-watson-
supercomputer-destroys-all-humans-in-jeopardy-pract/)

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cookiecaper
Hardly amazing that a computer with access to billions of pages of information
can out-trivia humans.

I suppose the story here is supposed to be the natural language processing,
but really the space which is covered by Jeopardy questions is pretty
confined. Color me unimpressed.

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Qz
Have you watched Jeopardy ever? The 'questions' are often pretty obscurely
worded, and the IBM computer often comes to completely bonkers conclusions
despite your supposed 'confined question space'.

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dnautics
I want to see it go on 'are you smarter than a fifth grader'. The sorts of
questions they should ask aren't ones that require knowledge but creativity,
understanding, and elision of concepts. For example:

If Dog is three and elephant is eight then what is ostrich?

Guarantee a fifth grader gets seven, but Watson is stumped.

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dnautics
Or: "Take the first letter of the color of an eggplant. What zodiac sign also
starts with that letter?"

