Elementary, my dear Watson: Jeopardy Blues

Post by **Maria** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 6:51 pm

I'm glad I didn't have my heart set on watching last night. Apparently the local TV station messed up and ran a rerun last night!
Missed 'Jeopardy!' episode will air tonight
If I get off a little early today, I guess I could watch it tonight. But what's the point, really?

Post by **vison** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 7:27 pm

Because it's interesting?

Post by **Maria** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 7:50 pm

But I already know the computer wins! No suspense at all.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 7:51 pm

I was pretty sure that would happen, and I still enjoyed seeing how it worked.

Post by **vison** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:50 pm

I didn't "know" the computer was going to win. It was the WAY the computer played that blew me away.

I think it was astonishing.

Post by **SirDennis** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 9:58 pm

Alex Trebek did a wonderful job treating the three contestants with the same mix of impartiality and respect. In a way, his treatment of Watson helped "humanise" it.

exploiting the long editting window, with a nod to n.e.b.

Post by **Holbytla** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:13 pm

I didn't see much of the shows, but this past weekend or maybe last week, PBS did a show about the whole Watson thing. It was pretty interesting how it came about and the challenges that were faced.

Ah it was Nova. Here is the link; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/smart ... earth.html

Post by **N.E. Brigand** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 2:15 am

vison wrote:I wonder if part of its advantage is speed. I would expect that the builders allowed for that - Watson had an actual button, but the signal to press that button might be quicker in a computer's wiring than in a human's. The guys that were playing were the best Jeopardy players ever and I am sure they could have answered the questions just as well, but it seemed to me that Watson might have had a speed advantage.

I expect it did. I didn't see this particular tourney, but I think that for many or perhaps even most of the clues, all three players knew the question before Trebek finished reading the answer. I have nothing like the talent of a Jennings or Rutter, but at home I tend to respond correctly about 90% of the time to the clues on a regular Jeopardy game -- and I usually can tell before Trebek has read the entire clue whether I know the answer or not. Under pressure in L.A., I found I knew about 80% of the responses as the clues were read, but I only managed to buzz in first about 33% of the time. The questions this week were surely much more difficult (actually I'm sure they were, having just glanced at the first day's clues --edit: and now the second and third days' clues-- in the J! Archive*), but the competitors were of a very high caliber. Note that the players mustn't buzz in until Trebek finishes speaking and a producer listening to him presses a button. The players know this has happened when they see a little light go off (or on, I can't remember). If a player buzzes in before then, s/he is locked out for a fraction of a second (one-tenth?) which is usually sufficient time for someone else to answer first.

*It's interesting to see that Watson didn't get a single clue correct in the "Name the Decade" category in the first game or the "Actors Who Direct", "One Buck or Less", or "Also on Your Computer Keys" categories in the second game (in the first two cases, I knew four of the five); I wonder what that means.
...
Heh! There's a clue in the second game I knew that none of the contestants got correct. (But lots of clues in both games I would never get.)

Post by **vison** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 2:24 am

I generally do very well playing at home,

but I would probably be completely inept on the actual game. We used to play Trivial Pursuit a lot, but no one ever wants to play it now.

So what was the clue no one got correct in the second game?

I thought the "Computer Keys" clues were like the airport question Watson blew: Watson answered "Toronto" but had been asked for a US city, and on the computer keyboard there is no "chemise" clue - yet it gave that answer. I sat here yelling, "SHIFT!!!! IT'S SHIFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" but no one seemed to hear me.

"Home" is where the heart is, which Watson got, but its second choice was "delete" which Lord_M and I had a good laff over.

Post by **Holbytla** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 2:42 am

The NOVA show I watched detailed a lot of the questions/observations raised here.

I had a lot more to say, but the evil Gremlins ate my post (shakes fist at them). If you are interested, watch the NOVA show for a far more in depth look into the process and genesis of this event.

Post by **N.E. Brigand** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 3:01 am

vison wrote:So what was the clue no one got correct in the second game?

"As of 2010, Croatia & Macedonia are candidates but this is the only former Yugoslav republic in the EU"
Rutter guessed Bosnia. Watson guessed Serbia. Jennings didn't guess.

"Home" is where the heart is, which Watson got, but its second choice was "delete" which Lord_M and I had a good laff over.

Until reading your comment, I hadn't realized that Watson's top three choices for each clue were shown. This is a fun look at some of them. "When the computers come and take over our world, make sure you’re wearing a clean pair of underwear."

Post by **Túrin Turambar** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:11 am

N.E. Brigand wrote:
"Home" is where the heart is, which Watson got, but its second choice was "delete" which Lord_M and I had a good laff over.
Until reading your comment, I hadn't realized that Watson's top three choices for each clue were shown. This is a fun look at some of them. "When the computers come and take over our world, make sure you’re wearing a clean pair of underwear."

That was a riot

I'd love to see some of the early games, while he was still being tweaked.

Post by **WampusCat** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:08 am

I watched the shows, and that still made me laugh.

Post by **Maria** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 3:34 pm

I tried to watch the last show when it aired last night, but reception was too crappy. I absolutely hate the way broadcast digital signals act when quality is poor. With analog, you could get a fuzzy picture and still hear all the sounds and understand what is going on.

With digital, first it starts with large pixels freezing up, then the sound starts blipping in and out and then what's left of the picture starts jumping 10 to 20 seconds at a time, plays a bit and repeats cycle until the TV gives up and puts up a blank screen that says "poor signal quality".

There's a reason we mostly watch DVDs.

Post by **Alatar** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 4:02 pm

Thats what satellites are for Maria

Post by **Frelga** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:00 am

IBM supercomputer Watson to assist doctors

Here's something really useful for Watson to do. Other suggested applications were looking up relevant case law.

"Imagine having the ability to take in all the information around a patient's medical care -- symptoms, findings, patient interviews and diagnostic studies," WellPoint chief medical officer Sam Nussbaum said.
"Then, imagine using Watson analytic capabilities to consider all of the prior cases, the state-of-the-art clinical knowledge in the medical literature and clinical best practices to help a physician advance a diagnosis and guide a course of treatment."