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Man vs Machine, Round Two

Posted August 01, 2009 7:31 AM

If you thought the Man vs. Machine contests were put to rest after an IBM supercomputer gave the knock out punch to super chess champ Kasparov in game six of the 1997 series, well think again. Now, IBM is seeking a tougher human challenge. Its new supercomputer Watson is being prepped to compete on Jeopardy. Who are you putting your money on this time around?

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Peter Nachtwey
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#1

Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/01/2009 11:43 PM

The computer, no contest. Jeopardy is a simple look up problem and no one will beat the computer to pushing the button.
2
aurizon
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#2
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Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/01/2009 11:50 PM

they will create questions that have high ambiguity. Thus machines that search will get thousands of hits and have no way to prune the response tree, yet the answer will be recallable if the human knows it.

So machines will not win by speed alone

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Peter Nachtwey
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#7
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Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/03/2009 12:28 PM

they will create questions that have high ambiguity.

I can tell that none of you have watched Jeopardy or you would have jumped on the fact that the ANSWERS are provided and you must supply the question. Show me an ambiguous answer. If the answer is "it is red" then the computer can come up with many answers like "what color is a clowns nose" or "what color is a red apple" and be right and the question would be as good as any other. If you think about it you will find the answers quite short. I suggest you try typing in the answers in to google and see what you get. You will not find questions but you will find the information from which to form a question fairly rapidly. I still think it is no contest IF they stick to the Jeopardy rules. The computer will win easily.
aurizon
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#8
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Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/03/2009 12:46 PM

42

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Peter Nachtwey
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#9
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Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/03/2009 10:38 PM

The number of answers is infinite. Picking an answer without context is very arbitrary. What makes you think a person will do any better?
msm98lw
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#11
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Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/05/2009 11:33 AM

what is 6 * 9 in base 13?

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6 * 9 = 42 in base 13
Tornado
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#3

Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/02/2009 1:02 AM

I hope they put the computer up against Ken Jennings, not just any Jeopardy contestant. I make no bets, though.
Red_E_Made
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#4

Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/02/2009 3:01 AM

If assuming the the computer (and programmers) follow the same standard rules of the game, ie. Not knowing the questions or even subjects given in that particular episode, that it could very well be a no contest in favor for the humans. The computer would not only be required to recall the response, but prior would have to interpret the suggestive meanings of the answer and use, like humans, analyze the literal as well as the analogist point-of-view to attain the correct question. That sifting through the data would seem to become very time consuming, and even though the computer can react to the button quicker, at what point will the computer "decide" it knows the correct response before pressing it.

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jt
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#5

Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/02/2009 9:17 AM

Give the computer this one. (question)

What's the difference between a duck?

jt.

Answer is on www.jtmart.com
aurizon
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#6
In reply to #5

Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/02/2009 11:16 AM

Is it as warm in the spring as it is in the country...

That and your question(and others like it) are part of the mental competency tests given

to people here in Canada.

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Tornado
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#10

Re: Man vs Machine, Round Two

08/04/2009 12:03 AM

Just any question that has the given answer will not do; it has to fit a given category. The answer "42" from two posts ago would match the question, "what is 6 x 7?" but this surely is not what what the poster had in mind. Many people will know the correct question, but a computer might not. However, if the Watson programmers read this thread, they may be able to plug in the correct question in advance (together with a tree to identify the appropriate category). But I wouldn't necessarily bet that they can do this in enough cases to make a good show. Thus I eagerly await the results if such a face-off occurs. See Douglas Hofstadter's encounter with "Nikolai" in "Metamagical Themas."
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