Impressed by the speed and accuracy with which Watson churned out answers (or rather, "questions") in its winning performance in the Jeopardy! Challenge last year? Citigroup was, too -- so much so that it has hired the supercomputer to assist its human financial professionals.
Some influential tech voices deeply critical of today's search technology hailed the victory of IBM's Watson at Jeopardy! as a forerunner of a new type of more intelligent, useful and less spammy search. Here's why that's still an awfully long ways off.
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.
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.
For Watson, it was elementary. IBM's mighty supercomputer has landed the title of new Jeopardy! champ. No matter how hard Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings -- the two human contestants pitted against the machine -- tried, they were just no match for the brainy Watson.
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.
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?
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?