As many of you probably know, IBM’s computer Watson has been competing on Jeopardy and managed to beat Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two very knowledgeable human beings and the best Jeopardy players. Well in the final Jeopardy category the question was about US cities. As soon as I read Watson’s answer I couldn’t stop laughing 
Here’s the video:
That whole show was sooo unfair…the split second Alex stopped talking Watson had already buzzed in…lol
I watched it last night and couldn’t stop laughing at Watson’s answer…it’s because Watson’s brain was linked to Ottawa http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Watson+computer+Ottawa+roots/4290481/story.html
No, it’s not because of the Ottawa connection!
David Ferrucci, who heads up the Watson project:
“First, the category names on Jeopardy! are tricky. The answers often do not exactly fit the category. Watson, in his training phase, learned that categories only weakly suggest the kind of answer that is expected, and, therefore, the machine downgrades their significance. The way the language was parsed provided an advantage for the humans and a disadvantage for Watson, as well. “What US city” wasn’t in the question. If it had been, Watson would have given US cities much more weight as it searched for the answer. Adding to the confusion for Watson, there are cities named Toronto in the United States and the Toronto in Canada has an American League baseball team. It probably picked up those facts from the written material it has digested. Also, the machine didn’t find much evidence to connect either city’s airport to World War II. (Chicago was a very close second on Watson’s list of possible answers.) So this is just one of those situations that’s a snap for a reasonably knowledgeable human but a true brain teaser for the machine.”
The explanation of Watson’s answer — at 3:13…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI-M7O_bRNg&annotation_id=annotation_383798&feature=iv#t=3m11s
In an episode of 30ROCK, Steve Martin’s character told Liz, “Come with me to Toronto. It’s just like New York, but without all the stuff!”
Explanation of the “Toronto” answer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI-M7O_bRNg&feature=player_embedded
If you want to skip straight to the part, scroll to the 2:50 mark. I’m just in awe of future applications this project may bring.
I also liked one of Watson’s questions that he didn’t give to the answer “home is where this is”…his second choice was “the delete key”!!
ya, it was kind of a tricky question for Watson but it was only 3% away from the right answer. I was impressed nevertheless with it’s performance in the tournament.
I enjoyed how whenever Watson got the Daily Double he would bid a very unusual amount like $1,417.
It was fun to watch!! LOL at Watson’s name! Reminded me of “Watson” the basketball in the Tom Hanks movie Castaway!!! haha
Wilson?
…the volleyball?