Watson on Jeopardy: Conclusion
February 18, 2011 Posted by Tyler CruzTwo days ago, Watson completed his 3-episode challenge on Jeopardy against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.
The 3rd and final episode cut back on a lot of back history of Watson and went through an entire game (as opposed to only showing half a game the previous two episodes).
Watson won the random draw to choose first, and quickly started to dominate his two esteemed opponents again.
However, Ken managed to get a bunch in a row, and Watson made a couple of mistakes, so by the end of the first half, the scores were Ken at $8,600, Watson at $4,800, and Brad at $2,400.
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Even though I was ultimately rooting for Watson, I was happy to see his human opponents finally giving him an actual challenge. Score one for the human race!
In Double Jeopardy, Ken continued to do well, especially in the beginning. Watson caught up, however, and by the end of the round the scores were Ken at $18,200, Watson at $22,640, and Brad at $5,600.
Final Jeopardy was very interesting, since both Ken and Watson had close scores. How and what would Watson wager?
Ken gained audience points by appending to his answer: “(I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW COMPUTER OVERLORDS)”, especially since the majority of the studio audience were IBM staff 
I’m surprised that he only wagered $1,000 though, as it seemed like Watson could correctly answer the Final Jeopardy question, which means that Ken was betting that he’d get it wrong.
Watson answered correctly though, and wagered around 75% of his money to finish with $41,413. So, even if Ken did bet everything, he still would have lost, and maybe that was his logic, which makes sense.
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So, Watson won!
The 2-day total of Watson’s earnings came to a whopping $77,147. I wonder if that is a new record.
By the way, did anyone else find Brad Rutter’s constant and weird moving around annoying and distracting? Normally I wouldn’t comment on such a thing, but he wants to be an actor and TV host, so I wonder if he’s aware of how distracting it is.
Anyhow, I certainly enjoyed watching Watson compete on Jeopardy.
The question now is, what’s next? IBM already proved that computers are better than humans at chess and Jeopardy, now what?
I think that poker would be a good candidate, but the luck factor would never leave a clear winner. What’s next? IBM will obviously tackle something else… the publicity they received from Watson, and especially Deep Blue, makes the tens of millions of dollars they invest certainly worth it.
Then there’s the question of what other applicable uses will Watson be used for? Will they sell it to Google and make a watson.google.com? Will the underlying software be licensed out to various technology companies?
What do you think? What’s next for Watson and IBM?
19 Responses to “Watson on Jeopardy: Conclusion”
Just what i thought.. computers are taking over!
The more certain Watson is of his answer the more he bets. That’s why the weird betting amounts. Also, the more sure he is of his answer the faster he buzzes in. I think you should buy Watson and have him write some guest blogs for you. 😀
What will they do with Watson now?
I don’t think humans stand a chance against Watson unfortunately. The computer does not blink and already has multiple options at a second. cool
lol, I second that Angel.
Indeed. Not that I am paranoid about computers taking over humans in the future, but Watson is definitely a good one to lead that charge!
Watson rocks! Haha, I would really love to see watson.google.com that will be cool!
Glad someone else caught this show to!!
How long before sky net becomes “self aware”
hahaha
@Spy Cameras, I think it will be a very long time from now… definitely not in our life time.
-Jean
That is just wild, i still can’t believe how the whole thing worked out. I want to see this done again with maybe a less informed computer with more logic or street scene.
Well, for one, the scary part is, I am sure they could make tons of improvements on Watson’s AI. So pretty much humans will have a super slim chance to win. I am not sure what’s next for Watson but they could use it as a real “ask Jeeves”, like perhaps at store corners, you could pay a quarter or a dollar to have a question answered.
-Jean
That’s a good point. Perhaps they could throw in some algorithms that mimic human tendencies that lead to the so-called ‘human errors’ we frequently make.
Exactly! I am sure they can go far with it
-Jean
Conan did this hilarious spoof of that robot, google it. Its hilarious!
@Maple nice recommendation, I loved the part where that guy raged on Watson
-Jean
This was great to watch. The final round where Watson answered Toronto was seriously something to think about, but it was pretty sneaky how he only bid $947!
wow watson done a good job, banked $77000, good for him!
if you ask me its probably a scam to get more view on the show
Maybe – but it was still a good scam – I haven’t watched jeopardy in years and I tuned in !