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IBM's Watson starts on Jeopardy Tonight

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Re: IBM's Watson starts on Jeopardy Tonight

#41

Post by jasonkester »

brown9-2 wrote: post #15

You can watch the PBS Nova episode about the building of Watson for free on their website (about 60 minutes long, aired Feb 9 2011): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/smartest-machine-on-earth.... One question I have about Watson that I don't recall being mentioned in any videos or articles so far - what sort of interface does Watson receive the questions over? Is Watson performing speech recognition or getting the t…

(if you're in the United States)

Amazing that PBS is locking down their videos. They're public television fer cryin' out loud.

Re: IBM's Watson starts on Jeopardy Tonight

#43

Post by dstein »

lrm242 wrote: post #20
brown9-2 wrote: post #15

You can watch the PBS Nova episode about the building of Watson for free on their website (about 60 minutes long, aired Feb 9 2011): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/smartest-machine-on-earth.... One question I have about Watson that I don't recall being mentioned in any videos or articles so far - what sort of interface does Watson receive the questions over? Is Watson performing speech recognition or getting the t…

This was answered in the Nova special, in passing. The question is fed to Watson as text at the same moment it appears on the display that the contestants can see. Likewise for correct answers. Watson is not performing speech recognition.

The question is fed to Watson as text

Aw this seems rather half-assed to me. I hope at a later time they do another one of these with a new and improved Watson. I really want to see a humanoid robot standing on the podium (connected by wifi to the supercomputer) and using OCR and speech recognition. I also think Watson's voice should be more authoritative. It's like they went to extraordinary effort to make Watson sound unimposing.

Re: IBM's Watson starts on Jeopardy Tonight

#44

Post by xxpor »

jasonkester wrote: post #41
brown9-2 wrote: post #15

You can watch the PBS Nova episode about the building of Watson for free on their website (about 60 minutes long, aired Feb 9 2011): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/smartest-machine-on-earth.... One question I have about Watson that I don't recall being mentioned in any videos or articles so far - what sort of interface does Watson receive the questions over? Is Watson performing speech recognition or getting the t…

(if you're in the United States) Amazing that PBS is locking down their videos. They're public television fer cryin' out loud.

So is the BBC.

Re: IBM's Watson starts on Jeopardy Tonight

#45

Post by [deleted] »

brown9-2 wrote: post #15

You can watch the PBS Nova episode about the building of Watson for free on their website (about 60 minutes long, aired Feb 9 2011): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/smartest-machine-on-earth.... One question I have about Watson that I don't recall being mentioned in any videos or articles so far - what sort of interface does Watson receive the questions over? Is Watson performing speech recognition or getting the t…

[deleted]

Re: IBM's Watson starts on Jeopardy Tonight

#46

Post by jasonkester »

xxpor wrote: post #44
jasonkester wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(if you're in the United States) Amazing that PBS is locking down their videos. They're public television fer cryin' out loud.

So is the BBC.

Not in the same way. PBS never plays commercials and actually takes several days off each year to ask people to donate money so that they can continue broadcasting.

It genuinely is supported by individual donations. Showing their programs to a wider audience could only result in more people donating to them.

Re: IBM's Watson starts on Jeopardy Tonight

#47

Post by icefox »

brown9-2 wrote: post #15

You can watch the PBS Nova episode about the building of Watson for free on their website (about 60 minutes long, aired Feb 9 2011): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/smartest-machine-on-earth.... One question I have about Watson that I don't recall being mentioned in any videos or articles so far - what sort of interface does Watson receive the questions over? Is Watson performing speech recognition or getting the t…

The real question I have is according to that episode Watson does not take into account the category only the 'answer' and the already shown questions. It seems _really_ odd that they would ignore this bit of information.

Re: IBM's Watson starts on Jeopardy Tonight

#48

Post by quickpost »

3pt14159 wrote: post #12

http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/what-is-watson/co... Has a nice little video too.

I'm glad they touched on the idea that this is actually a "Human vs Human" competition... Really good Jeopardy players vs. a team of humans that built their own "Jeopardy Player".

Watson winning the tournament is a triumph for humanity, not just for machines.

Re: IBM's Watson starts on Jeopardy Tonight

#49

Post by Bud »

jasonkester wrote: post #46
xxpor wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is the BBC.

Not in the same way. PBS never plays commercials and actually takes several days off each year to ask people to donate money so that they can continue broadcasting. It genuinely is supported by individual donations. Showing their programs to a wider audience could only result in more people donating to them.

You've market-tested this approach to fund-raising for a non-profit, then, I assume?

Re: IBM's Watson starts on Jeopardy Tonight

#50

Post by rst »

icefox wrote: post #47
brown9-2 wrote: post #15

You can watch the PBS Nova episode about the building of Watson for free on their website (about 60 minutes long, aired Feb 9 2011): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/smartest-machine-on-earth.... One question I have about Watson that I don't recall being mentioned in any videos or articles so far - what sort of interface does Watson receive the questions over? Is Watson performing speech recognition or getting the t…

The real question I have is according to that episode Watson does not take into account the category only the 'answer' and the already shown questions. It seems _really_ odd that they would ignore this bit of information.

IIRC, they said they fixed that.
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