{"id":7640,"date":"2011-02-16T01:02:41","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T01:02:41","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-02-16T18:02:19","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T18:02:19","slug":"Computer-crushes-human-Jeopardy--champs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=7640","title":{"rendered":"Computer crushes human ‘Jeopardy!’ champs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/strong>, founder of the US technology giant, dominated the game by beating his human opponents to the buzzer on all but a handful of questions.<\/p>\n

The computer managed to answer every attempted question correctly — except the usually critical final round.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Watson ended the second day of the three day challenge with $36,681 while Rutter had $5,400 and Jennings had $2,400. <\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n