Last month, IBM's Watson supercomputer beat trivia champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Jeopardy. At the core of Watson's success was something called Semantic Analysis Technology, and if you want to make your own Jeopardy bet, put some money on the companies that supply it.
It's all over but the shouting, when it comes to the highly-publicized, man vs. machine contest on Jeopardy! But a debate has surfaced over whether IBM's Watson supercomputer had a built-in advantage in the event, when it came to buzzing-in answers to clues.
Some of today's online stories for investors: What was it like to play against IBM's Watson? How did the Kardashians make $65mm last year? Is the music industry dead?
If nobody's perfect, same goes for computers. Big Blue's digital dynamo Watson may have handily defeated its human rivals this week on the Jeopardy! challenge, but it made some major errors along the way. IBM's engineers have been posting post-mortems about that on the Internet.
IBM's Watson supercomputer wasn't The Terminator. But it did easily beat out two human champions in the first game of a much-anticipated Jeopardy! showdown between man and machine. The event is also proving to be a ratings winner for CBS.
IBM's supercomputer Watson racked up $5,000 in winnings on day one of the three-day Jeopardy! challenge Monday, but so did one of its human competitors. The human champs, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings, face long odds -- at least according those betting their own money on the action.
Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter know how tough IBM's Watson supercomputer will be to defeat when they compete heads-to-chips next week. With the honor of the human race at stake, here's a look at the strategies they're counting on to outwit the ultra-brainy black box.
Brandishing hardware and software optimized for understanding the nuances of natural-language questions, Big Blue's ultra-brainy machine is preparing to face two flesh-and-blood champions of the TV game show. And if it also brings in some new customers for IBM's growing analytics software business, all the better.
Answer: This competitor will give Jeopardy! über-champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter a run for their money in 2011. Question: What is Watson, IBM's Jeopardy!-playing computer? So have IBM's scientists really solved the puzzle of quickly answering questions posed in natural language?
Along with hitting the lottery and scoring the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, winning big money on a game show ranks up there on the list of American dreams. Here are some stories of game show heroes and heroines, and what they did after the check arrived and the bright lights faded.
There's a massive doctor shortage coming. One solution: develop artificial intelligence that is as good as a real physician at diagnosis. But even if this is possible, will patients be willing to trust robot doctors with their health?
