Watch IBM's Watson On Jeopardy Tonight

JohnMurtari notes that the media hype machines are massively promoting tonight's battle between Jeopardy champions and a super computer. Yes it's a PR stunt. But I imagine the actual research probably had a lot of interesting problems to address. Anyway, you can learn about IBM Watson if you're interested. I'm sure the most amusing bits will be on YouTube about 30 seconds after air time.

Comments

Yes, Thank Turing We're Not the Media Hype Machine

[eldavojohn]

JohnMurtari notes that the media hype machines are massively promoting tonight's battle between Jeopardy champions and a super computer.

I'm so glad we're above that.

Seriously, if this thing doesn't accidentally observe the Higgs Boson while seeking for a question to an answer, I'm going to be disappointed.

Not sure why people are knocking it

[suso]

I mean its going to be one of the first times that a robot with speech recognition will be live and responding against people in real time on broadcast TV. I think you all have been living in your movie plots too much to realize how big of a moment this actually is.

Re:Not sure why people are knocking it

[levork]

But it's not speech recognition. Watson is getting its input via text, it's not doing any speech recognition. And lest you think this gives the computer an unfair advantage, it's nominally the same advantage championship Jeopardy players can pull: they can read the text off the monitor screen faster than Alex Trebek drones it out.

Re:Yes, Thank Turing We're Not the Media Hype Mach

[olsmeister]

It's a little more interesting than a computer beating a human at chess, which is completely algorithmic. However, at its heart, this is simply an exercise in in data storage, lookup, and statistical probabilities in determining a likely answer. It does not involve any artificial intelligence or machine intelligence at all. From a purely technological standpoint, it's quite impressive what IBM has been able to do. It'll be even more impressive in 10 years when the same type of power is in my phone.

Re:Yes, Thank Turing We're Not the Media Hype Mach

[tlhIngan]

However, at its heart, this is simply an exercise in in data storage, lookup, and statistical probabilities in determining a likely answer. It does not involve any artificial intelligence or machine intelligence at all. From a purely technological standpoint, it's quite impressive what IBM has been able to do. It'll be even more impressive in 10 years when the same type of power is in my phone.

True, but it's also an understanding of human language. If you watch the PBS NOVA episode on it, it can be quite hard. Like the category called "Days in months", where you're given two days of a month and have to answer in the month. How does a computer figure that out? (In Watson's case, it didn't until it saw the correct answers and figured out that it needed to be months).

Or a category like "before and after"?

Pure trivia questions - yes it's a simple database lookup (and Watson basically kills at it). But Jeopardy isn't just a nerd trivia game, it's all about subtleties of language - double meanings, puns, wordplay and other elements that make it extremely hard.

It's basically a step towards understanding natural language, with all the issues and subtleties that we put in - emotions, sarcasm, etc.

Or, in Feb 14-16, 2011, Skynet will show off its ability to understand human language.

Re:will the public appreciate the sublteties?

[Yevoc]

You have got to be kidding right? Any reading about Watson will quickly reveal that the subtleties of language (specifically English metaphors, similes, and irony) as well as the ingrained underpinnings of Western culture have been its two biggest obstacles since day one, and that's precisely why IBM chose Jeopardy as their next grand AI challenge.

Having dozens of Chinese colleagues, I can assure you that the hidden meanings and references we bury in the English language are completely lost to them even though they know the English words. Do you really think I will understand their jokes, movies, books, etc, just because I flipped a switch and heard a word-for-word translation from Chinese to English? (Even that situation is absurd, actually, because Chinese-English translators have to see a sentence and translate holistically, where many colloquialisms and phrases lose their meaning in translation)

Here's a quick example:
(Exact translation from Chinese to English) "Watchful caution! Avatar come!"

If you thought that meant a blue creature or a virtual representation of a person was coming for you, you'd be wrong. Chinese gamers call a bombing helicopter/hovercraft an "Avatar," because they first saw one in the movie Avatar. If Watson got that right, he'd have to know a very subtle fact about Chinese culture, and Jeopardy is replete with these cultural landmines.

If IBM can prove a machine understands the deep underpinnings of our language AND culture by correctly answering very apocryphal questions better than a Jeopardy champion, then the company will have effectively demonstrated the world's best language and cultural interpreter to bridge the gap between man and machine.

Re:Yes, Thank Turing We're Not the Media Hype Mach

[RockClimbingFool]

It'll be even more impressive in 10 years when the same type of power is in my phone.

Your phone will not have terabytes of RAM in ten years. I promise.

The actual phone may not have 10 terabytes of RAM, but I bet it will be able to instantly access computers that do.

In fact, with Google, Bing, and other search engines, one could make a case that your phone already does contain at least that amount of RAM.

We are also seeing this with services like OnLive. Once we get to a point with mobile phones that have very high bandwidth, very low latency and access to dedicated, powerfull remote computers, everything is going to go to dumb terminal renderers.

Re:Jeopardy Is Just A Cover For ( +2, Helpful )

[Anonymous Coward]

(1) It does a lot of search. For example, for answering the movie questions it use the IMDB, (from its own storage and probably pre-digested). The missing "hook it up to the internet" doesn't sound like a big obstacle - unless its algorithms/storage needs aren't linear with its source material.

(2) The fact that it doesn't "resemble search as we know it today" is what would make it useful. It adds a cognitive bit to search that is currently missing. Today, its often hard to find information on the internet if your exact question hasn't been asked before. Its also hard to find answers to questions that are context sensitive. If your search engine could even be a little bit helpful with these it would save a lot of time.

I have no idea what IBM's plans are and I'm sure there are other applications for Watson but they would be nuts to not think about how it could be used for internet search.

Re:Yes, Thank Turing We're Not the Media Hype Mach

[iluvcapra]

It's striking how many people are willing to die for things they don't understand, let alone converse about them.

I was struck in Wired for War by the stories of EOD units in Iraq who would name their bomb-defusing robots, give them ranks, promotions, and ribbons, and, touchingly, would mourn their robot's destruction. There's one story about an operator who was literally bawling to a support rep at iRobot, asking if they could please somehow repair their bot. They were real creatures to them, and they were completely unintelligent. What really made the robots alive to them is that they were balky, seemed to have a personality in difficult situations (operator's confirmation bias at work), and had saved the operator's lives many, many times. It didn't matter that the robot didn't "understand" why it was being destroyed, the operators were often in a similar situation... what mattered was its (nominal) selflessness and heroism, something the operator's were required to display as well in a war situation.

I mean like, the Chinese Room is interesting, but the dark secret is that, when it comes to the way human beings confer personhood on other things, it makes it so there is no door to the Chinese Room. Only a mail slot, and it's impossible to see what's on the other side. An an unknowable truth is no truth at all.