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Post-Googleism At IBM With Piquant

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the find-the-prettiest-girl-in-new-jersey dept.

kamesh writes "James Fallows of the New York Times reports an interesting search technology that IBM is developing. IBM demonstrated a system called Piquant, which analyzed the semantic structure of a passage and therefore exposed 'knowledge' that wasn't explicitly there. After scanning a news article about Canadian politics, the system responded correctly to the question, 'Who is Canada's prime minister?' even though those exact words didn't appear in the article. What do you think?"

5 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds impressive by Timesprout · · Score: 4, Funny

    Till you realise the computer answered 'some asshole' which could be any prime minister in the world really.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  2. Canadian Prime Minister by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I for one congratulate Canadian Prime Minister Tim Horton for running a great campaign and his wife Wendy for her fantastic chain of restaurants!

  3. Re:Prolly a hand-picked question by Quixote · · Score: 4, Funny
    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.
    -- Andy Finkel, computer guy

    Or, conversely,

    Any sufficiently rigged demo is indistinguishable from an advanced technology.
    -- Don Quixote, slashdot guy

    ;-)

  4. Re:You fools! This is the beginning of the end! by Xugumad · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is it just me who would, if designing an AI, would have have a trivial off switch. Probably a few backups, like wire cutters next to the main power cable, a jug of water near the PSU, things like that.

    It is just me, isn't it...

  5. Transcript of conversation with Piquant by trveler · · Score: 3, Funny

    User: Who is Canada's Prime Minister?

    PIQUANT: WHY DO YOU ASK, USER?

    Because I want to know.

    WHAT IS THE REAL REASON, USER?

    I want to test you.

    WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU IF YOU GOT TO TEST ME?

    It would mean I can determine whether or not you know who Canada's Prime Minister is.

    WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I COULD TELL YOU THAT?

    I programmed you to figure it out.

    LET'S TALK ABOUT YOU -- NOT ME.

    I want to know the name of Canada's Prime Minister.

    WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE NAME OF CANADA'S PRIME MINISTER?

    Are you going to tell me his name or not?

    WHY ARE YOU INTERESTED IN WHETHER OR NOT I AM GOING TO TELL YOU HIS NAME OR NOT?

    Stop avoiding the question! Just tell me his name!

    NAMES DON'T INTEREST ME.

    Fuck you!

    TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR OWN PROBLEM, USER.

    Shit!

    GO ON.

    You suck.

    YOU'RE NOT REALLY STILL TALKING ABOUT ME, ARE YOU?

    --
    ... is whot bwings os tugevza tsuzay.