Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I'm just cracking wise. Watson is a very impressive project. Nonetheless, throw four to seven Google researchers and engineers at this project and you'd achieve comparable results. They've been cornering the market in this area.

But instant button pressing is not terribly impressive and yet is Watson's critical advantage. This match is framed as a battle of knowledge, not a struggle for humans to overcome the massive disadvantage of their meat-based nervous system, which it is.

This is largely glossed over. Watson would lose horribly if one of its engineers was pressing the button. If its electronic advantage on the button was taken away, it would be the kind of fascinating match I and a lot of people were expecting.




Google actually does do open-domain fact-based question answering for queries like:

"what is the capital of china"

which are probably closest to Jeopardy questions (technically speaking.)

The team that does this is a lot more than seven Google engineers. Yet, it is not the top selling features of Google, because -- it's not that easy.

There is a fine line between "seems easy" and "nearly impossible". A Google engineer does not equate to infinite skills.


Yes, watson can play Jeopardy. Jennings and Rutter can also do every other thing that a human being can do. The meat based system is still, on the measure, much more impressive.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: