Giles

I was expecting Watson to say "want..to.. play ..a..game?"

bluetoast

I read that they culled these games from 30 games worth of new questions, with the writers not knowing about Watson and all that stuff. In addition, they removed some questions that would give Ken and Brad specifically an advantage (not as humans, but because of their skill level), and they removed all Video and Audio clues.

chowderhead

technically, if I recall, Jennings said "the 20s." Watson also picked 1920s as the best answer and said the whole year. Anyway, double jeopardy tends to much harder but hopefully Watson will be tripped up by the wording/phrasing as it was on a few of the answers.

whoopdido

I thought since Watson repeated Ken's answer that meant that Ken actually beat it and buzzed in first.

From what I understand Watson has no idea what the other players say and it'll simply buzz in if its such and such percent sure that its number 1 answer is correct--80% or whatever. Since Ken got the question wrong, I just assumed that Watson buzzed in next and also said the 20's because that's what it thought the answer was. If that was the case, then Ken beat it on the buzzer and then it just got a chance to give the same answer it would have had it buzzed in first since Ken got it wrong.

Anubis2005X

This was pretty fun to watch and am excited for the next episode. Only aspect I didn't care for was that at times it was essentially an IBM wankfest...

Charlie Goose

If I remember correctly, Rutter was eliminated on 1 vs. 100 on a question about a Hasidic rapper.

Jeremy517

Watson knew the very first question, but Brad beat him to the buzzer. Brad and Ken probably won't win the buzzer races most of the time, but they definitely can sometimes.

mgbfan

My guess is that over the three days, the questions will be tailored more and more to be difficult for the computer. Start him off with some softballs and get harder every day.

whoopdido

Matisyahu? Wow...haven't heard that name in a while. Dude fell off the face of the Earth.

Chaza

I live in Jersey and have never listened to this joker ever but have 2 really good friends who would love to see him.

Josh-da-man

I had no idea that IBM still existed. I was just wondering what happened to them the other day.

Deftones

that was cool but totally lame that they stretched it over 3 days.

sauce07

That was me, I play poker with Eddie every week. He got to play Watson 5 times and beat it once because it messed up on Final Jeopardy.

grundle

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YgYSv2KSyWg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thrush

Knowing that Watson is reading text makes it less impressive than if it were using speech recognition to answer the questions.

Dr Mabuse

It was kind of cool, but way too much filler about the computer system. They should have played the game and told you to go geek out on the website for more info or something.

starman9000

Why? I bet Brad and Ken barely even notice Trebek speaking.

silentbob007

It loses something in the translation for me because we have no frame of reference for that process. I'd think the computer could parse a text file much faster than a human could read it.

Bill Needle

Watching this I got the strong impression that Watson's probable 0.00 second reaction time delay to "buzz in" once it is allowed had a lot to do with his early lead. You could see Jennings getting visibly frustrated at being repeatedly out buzzed by Watson. I understand that Watson actually pushes a button, but I seriously doubt he ever pushes it early for instance (thereby getting the lockout), and who is to say how fast he is allowed to physically push it? Should it be a 500 microseconds push? Or 500 milliseconds? Either of those setting would have a significant impact on the results of the game and yet have nothing to do with Watson's ability to interpret the answers/questions.

Nick Danger

Have you ever tried playing at home without watching the screen? I found it a lot harder. I read the clue and come up with an answer before Trebek is done speaking.

It would be a substantial advantage if Watson could trigger the button in (say) 0.5 milliseconds, when the average human reaction time runs about 20 milliseconds. On the other hand, if a player is listening to Trebek, he could time his push for just when Trebek says the last word. Drag racers don't wait for the green light before they move their foot; they watch the rhythm of the lights and anticipate when the green light will turn on.

pinata242

I know they said a text file is "sent" to Watson when the answer is selected. But do we know if it is all at once for instant parsing or is it streamed as Trebrek speaks?

starman9000

But that's the point, trying to make a computer that can play the game better within the rules of the game. Handicapping the computer to be more fair would make it worse.


Yeah, that's what I meant.

starman9000

I would hope Watson and the players both get the text at the same time.

Kory

What is leg?

Tommy Ceez

Matisyahu?