Jeopardy! goes high tech with Watson the Supercomputer

When it comes to shows that no one will ever seem to tire of, Jeopardy! definitely sits near the top of the list. I know that, just like me, there are plenty of you out there who will sit in front of an episode of jeopardy and shout out the answers in question form as if Alex Trebek can actually hear you. Well last week, we might all have met our ultimate Jeopardy match as the show paired up with IBM to bring us a few special episodes featuring Watson – a supercomputer.

In a series of two games broadcasted over three episodes, Watson competed against the game’s two most celebrated players who hold the most winnings in Jeopardy history – Brad Rutter, who has won more than $3 million from the show, and Ken Jennings, who won a record-breaking 74 games in a row back in 2004.

At the time I wrote this, they were two games in and Watson is proving to be stiff competition for the two Jeopardy celebs. In the first round, Watson tied with Rutter at $5,000. On day two the computer knocked it out of the park, winning the first game with $35,734! (Watson eventually beat both human contestants.)

How Watson works

Watson is basically a room filled with servers, each loaded with an unimaginable amount of information. A screen sits behind the podium displaying a small circular “avatar” which changes color depending on Watson’s confidence in his answer. It’s kind of cute in a way.

What makes “him” so special is that he can actually understand language and the relationship between words to read the questions and come up with a range of possible responses. He then picks the top three, and displays his confidence in each answer as a percentage. If he feels more then 50% confident in an answer, it will trigger a device that clicks the buzzer for him to respond.

This all sounds pretty complex, but Watson is fast! Jennings and Rutter definitely had trouble beating Watson to the buzzer, even if they knew the right answer.

Now, don’t get the impression that Watson is perfect, and that Jeopardy is suddenly launching a new era of artificial intelligence. Watson did make some mistakes, even repeating a wrong answer given by Jennings (not really his fault since he can’t technically hear). He was also the only contestant to miss the Final Jeopardy question. However, because of Watson’s confidence rating system, he only wagered less than $1,000. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the first episode to be amazed!

This kind of thing is definitely cool, but can be a little scary. We are definitely stepping into a new generation of technology and it will be really interesting to see where it goes next.

Allison Shimp is an intern at Mom Central Consulting. She’s a senior at Bentley University, and plans on staying in the Boston area and getting her MBA after graduation. She’s a food fanatic with a background in restaurants, but also likes snowboarding and other outdoor activities. She plays Bentley Women’s Rugby and spends a lot of time doing activities with the team.

Mom Central