Tonight's episode of Jeopardy, featuring IBM's Watson AI vs. Humans, ends in a cliffhanger tie. 

Rutter: 5000
Watson: 5000
Jennings: 2000

We find out this week what the Smartest Machine on Earth can do (by beating all-time-high human scorers Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter at Jeopardy) for natural-language processing what Deep Blue did for chess.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/genetic_algorithms.png

I, for one, welcome our robot overlords, as long as someone remembered to put this little snippet into the code.

I'm not smart enought to be on Jeopardy.  :-\\

Remember the guy in 2005, I think his name was Ken Jennings? That became the number 1 Jeopardy winner ever!!

That guy is amazing. Respect man, I show respect.  ;D He's one of my idols. I'm not kidding.  8)

In addition to having the first non-human player in Jeopardy history, this was also the first show which did not air a complete game (ended after the Jeopardy! round, with Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy! airing the next night.) Oddly, the "name that decade" category seemed to struggle Watson the most! (For instance saying "1920s" after Ken gave the same incorrect answer on the first try, something I don't believe has ever happened on Jeopardy before (though maybe in the far past it did).

Isn't the Smartest Machine on Earth STILL only as smart as Man makes it, or...God help us!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/hal.gif

Tonight they played the Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy rounds. Of course, it was a runaway with "Watson" giving so many correct responses. "Watson" also made some interesting wagers for both of the Daily Doubles...and getting both of the questions right. In the Final Jeopardy, both of the human contenders got the question right (giving Chicago as the correct response), but "Watson" got it wrong and said Toronto (with 5 question marks after it) and lost only $947.

Tomorrow they will play a full game, and each contestant's winnings will be added to those of the first game, for a combined total for each contestant. If "Watson" should win the overall competition, will the money go to IBM or something?

Remember the guy in 2005, I think his name was Ken Jennings? That became the number 1 Jeopardy winner ever!!

That guy is amazing. Respect man, I show respect.  ;D He's one of my idols. I'm not kidding.  8)


Jennings was the longest running Jeopardy Contestant ever.  Brad Rutter surpassed him as the highest money winner, but JEnnings eventually won thitle back with further Jeopardy! appearances

Isn't the Smartest Machine on Earth STILL only as smart as Man makes it, or...God help us!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/hal.gif


the smartest machine can be stupid sometimes.

the smartest machine can be stupid sometimes.

Yes, on a preview I think I saw it give a couple of ridiculous answers. And on the actual show it repeated a wrong answer given by one of the human players.

Well...as predicted, "Watson" ended up winning the second game, and hence, the entire competition. But at least Ken was quicker with the signaling button. The winnings accumulated by "Watson" will go to the charities World Vision and World Community Grid, according to the IBM corporation. (This was also announced on the beginning of today's program.)

http://blogs.forbes.com/bruceupbin/2011/02/16/watson-wins-it-all-with-367-bet/

Remember the guy in 2005, I think his name was Ken Jennings? That became the number 1 Jeopardy winner ever!!

That guy is amazing. Respect man, I show respect.  ;D He's one of my idols. I'm not kidding.  8)


Jennings played a kickass game as usual, and I mean no disrespect to the greatest human player of the game.

http://zapp5.staticworld.net/news/graphics/219900-overlords3_original.jpg

But even Jennings knew when he was beat.  (And he reminded Watson, that as a trusted Jeopardy personality, he could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in Alex Trebek's underground trivia caves beneath the American city of Toronto.)

I read this thread a couple days ago, but only just now got the reference that was meant as the title of the thread... "Jeopardy" by Greg Kihn Band and later "I lost on Jeopardy" by Weird Al.  D'oh!  I guess Jeopardy is not in MY future anytime soon.

I read this thread a couple days ago, but only just now got the reference that was meant as the title of the thread... "Jeopardy" by Greg Kihn Band and later "I lost on Jeopardy" by Weird Al.  D'oh!  I guess Jeopardy is not in MY future anytime soon.


The song's only 27 years old, you're forgiven.

I mean, we're all watching the second incarnation of the show, and even Weird Al's official video would only be recognizable to people who remembered the first incarnation of the show.  Who's Don Pardo, and do they even make Turtle Wax anymore? :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvUZijEuNDQ

Penance: OK, I gave the Internets one line, but someone needs to write a parody and dub it onto footage from the Jennings/Watson/OtherHuman match-up. 

The song's only 27 years old, you're forgiven.

I mean, we're all watching the second incarnation of the show, and even Weird Al's official video would only be recognizable to people who remembered the first incarnation of the show.  Who's Don Pardo, and do they even make Turtle Wax anymore? :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvUZijEuNDQ

Penance: OK, I gave the Internets one line, but someone needs to write a parody and dub it onto footage from the Jennings/Watson/OtherHuman match-up. 


I'm seeing a parody done on MadTV in the near future with Watson. ;D

I'm seeing a parody done on MadTV in the near future with Watson. ;D


No you won't, since they stopped making new MadTV episodes in 2009.  :\'(

No you won't, since they stopped making new MadTV episodes in 2009.  :\'(


I meant Saturday Night Live.

I meant Saturday Night Live.


Now here's a good "Jeopardy" sketch...

Ken Jennings...
http://blog.cakepoker.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/9/ken-jennings-jeopardy-record-broken.jpg

Watson the Robot...
http://blog.giveforward.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ibm-watson-jeopardy.png

And...*sigh*...Sean Connery!...
http://swords.lookingforwhitman.org/files/2009/08/celebrity_jeopardy_connery1.jpg