Computer crushes human ‘Jeopardy!’ champs

An IBM computer crushed two human champions Tuesday in the second round of a man vs. machine showdown on the popular US television game show “jeopardy!” “Watson,” a supercomputer named after Thomas Watson, founder of the US technology giant, dominated the game by beating his human opponents to the buzzer on all but a handful of questions.

The computer managed to answer every attempted question correctly — except the usually critical final round. The audience groaned when Watson answered “What is Toronto????” to the question: “Its largest airport is named for a WWII hero. Its second largest, for a WWII battle” under the category US cities.

Ken Jennings — who holds the “Jeopardy!” record of 74 straight wins — gave Chicago as the correct answer, as did Brad Rutter who won a record $3.25 million on the show. But even though they wagered nearly all their winnings on the challenge, they couldn’t catch up to Watson’s lead.

Watson ended the second day of the three day challenge with $36,681 while Rutter had $5,400 and Jennings had $2,400. Watson, which is not connected to the Internet, plays the game by crunching through multiple algorithms at dizzying speed and attaching a percentage score to what it believes is the correct response.

Not until the fat lady sings! Brad Rutter still has a chance!

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