IBM’s Watson supercomputer had its first shot at Jeopardy last night, and, overall, it went well. Watson had a few moments that made me scratch my head — and it was clear near the end that Watson was having some trouble understanding the questions — but he did manage to tie with one of his human opponent. The oddest part, though, is that they refer to Watson as a “he” instead of an “it.”
A few moments that stood out to me was that when Watson had his moment to choose his first question, he picked the Daily Double from the start. (Considering the odds of doing that, I think there might have been a glitch in how the show presented the questions to Watson that tipped him off to the Daily Double.) There was also an awkward moment where Watson repeated the same answer as another opponent. Also, to my disappointment, Watson receives all of the questions electronically instead of vocally, which raises the issue of how fast he receives the questions compared to his opponents.
But it was an intriguing watch. I really enjoyed the fact that Watson presented everyone with its top three answers on the bottom of the screen. And I’m going to be watching tonight to see if Watson can pull it off. But I believe there are a few weaknesses that could lead the supercomputer to be upset. I guess we will have to watch to see what happens.
Check out the full first day of Watson’s attempt to defeat human below (before they are removed):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLdkJpAtt1I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXH7jn2AHAw
