Culture · Science/Technology

Would you expect the computer to win at ‘Jeopardy,’ or one of the humans?

Eric Ringham Dec 22, 2010
9

In an important test of artificial intelligence, an IBM computer will compete with star contestants on “Jeopardy” this February. Today’s Question: Would you expect the computer to win, or one of the humans?

  • Brian

    It’s mostly a trivia based game, not a conversation. Watson will win.

  • Steve the Cynic

    Who cares? Winning at ‘Jeopardy’ is trivial compared to the kinds of information collection and data mining that amoral corporations’ computers already do, enabling economic predators to gather and exploit personal information for profit.

  • BruceJ

    Jeopardy is a simple information retrieval game so ‘winning’ will depend on the data available to the application. Unlike chess, there is no strategy, no looking ahead to the next move, little if any interaction with the other players. So that means that the former jeopardy contestants have basically signed on to a publicity stunt. I guess they lost their money on poor investments.

  • steve

    the computer can win because they compute faster than the human thinking! they lack the emotional component but as a processor a computer is flawless!

  • Chuck

    I am hard pressed to think of anything more trvial than this question. How can one even consider this a test of artifical intelligence? If the computer has access to sufficient information and appropriate search alogorithms it will find the information. The only thought that went into this cam from the designers and programmers.

  • boB from WA

    Can a computer ask questions? If so, the computer wins, if not humans do.

  • SVCS08

    These questions are in English, not computer code, which makes it very challenging for a computer. For example: If the clue is: “If leadership is an art, then this man was a master painter during his tenure at GE.” Easy for a human to come up with “Who is Jack Welch,” but it would be remarkable if Watson figured that out.

  • Ann

    When I do a search, the computer doesn’t usually pin down my exact question right away. How could it win? It seems that the human would get more correct answers. The computer would probably beat me though because I’m not very good at the game.

  • svcs08

    Great point, Ann. Doing a Google search almost never yields an answer. It gives you a catalog of documents that contain your key words and may in fact help answer a question.

    That’s a huge difference from accurately answering questions in seconds.