Ken Jennings can't lose on Jeopardy!!

[yg17]

Did you notice that when Ken Jennings got a question wrong and then Watson had a turn, it made the same wrong guess as Jennings? I guess Watson is fed the Jeopardy! answers as Trebek reads them, but isn't told what the other players say during their turns. Presumably they aren't set up for live transcription and it's not set up for real-time audio interpretation either.

I have a question about the rules. Can players buzz in before Alex finishes reading the question? For example, if he says

This executive, famous for wearing a black turtleneck...​

and they think the question is "Who is Steve Jobs?" can they buzz in to guess before the question is complete? If Watson is given the question only when Alex finishes reading it then early buzzing would be an advantage that the humans should exploit.

I wonder if Watson will shake hands at the end of the game or of it's a bad sport.

Just for fun: history of the ACM computer chess championships

According to Wikipedia, contestants have to wait until the clue is read to buzz in.

I was wondering that too, if Watson gets the clue when Alex starts reading or when he finishes reading.

I think fair would be to give it to him in the middle of reading - I'm sure the Jeopardy players read the clue from the board faster than Alex can read it and are already thinking.

 

[Tilpots]

Did you notice that when Ken Jennings got a question wrong and then Watson had a turn, it made the same wrong guess as Jennings?

Trebek announced during the introduction that Watson could neither hear or see what was happening in the Jeopardy room, so his missing with the same answer is a flaw in its design. I bet those IBMers are working on that right now. It made Watson seem very out of touch, which is the complete opposite of what they're working towards. Watson should be able to either not ring in, move to it's second answer, or add the miss as part of it's thinking process.

As for the timing of when Watson gets fed his answers, I'd really like to know. That's such a huge part of Jeopardy. Thought they did a poor job of explaining it.

Still, it's very entertaining. I imagine it's like watching a car race a horse back in the day. I'll be looking for a Watson iOS app very soon.

 

[yg17]

He still has a few quirks. His daily double and final Jeopardy wagers seem to be completely random, no skill or strategy in those. Ditto for choosing categories - he jumps all over the board instead of sticking to one category like most players do.

SPOILER ALERT (highlight to see
On today's Final Jeopardy, the category was U.S. Cities and his answer was Toronto. So while he can use the clue to come up with an answer, he can't use the category to rule one out.

 

[iJohnHenry]

SPOILER ALERT (highlight to see
On today's Final Jeopardy, the category was U.S. Cities and his answer was Toronto. So while he can use the clue to come up with an answer, he can't use the category to rule one out.

That speaks less to "his" ability, and more to failure of the framers of the show.

I will await the day, when Watson can respond to the same spoken-word clues as the Human contestants do.

 

[gco212]

He still has a few quirks. His daily double and final Jeopardy wagers seem to be completely random, no skill or strategy in those. Ditto for choosing categories - he jumps all over the board instead of sticking to one category like most players do.

SPOILER ALERT (highlight to see
On today's Final Jeopardy, the category was U.S. Cities and his answer was Toronto. So while he can use the clue to come up with an answer, he can't use the category to rule one out.

The reason for doing one category is that it is advantageous to them as they get into a rhythm and get a feel for the category, so they stay where they're hot. That wouldn't happen with Watson, and it would be an advantage to the other players as they get used to the category even if they're not ringing in.

 

[Doctor Q]

Trebek announced during the introduction that Watson could neither hear or see what was happening in the Jeopardy room...

Then how was Watson able to wait while Trebek made off-hand comments like "I won't even ask" (about Watson's unusual betting)? When it was Watson's turn to pick the next answer it seemed to wait until Trebek finished making his comments and told the contestant (Watson) to choose.

I suspect that the two flesh-and-blood players knew a lot of the questions, so the lopsided score simply showed that Watson can press the button faster than people can. That wasn't the type of contest I was interested in. I want to know how often Watson vs. the humans would know the correct question and with Watson always buzzing in first we didn't find out. However, Watson got almost every question right so that's a sign that it would be hard to beat even with a slower trigger finger.

 

[yg17]

Then how was Watson able to wait while Trebek made off-hand comments like "I won't even ask" (about Watson's unusual betting)? When it was Watson's turn to pick the next answer it seemed to wait until Trebek finished making his comments and told the contestant (Watson) to choose.

There might be someone sending it those commands, if it can't see or hear, it's not a fully automated system. My guess is that humans are telling Watson whether it was right or wrong (remember, that avatar reacts on a wrong answer) and when to choose a category.

I'm surprised they didn't add in speech recognition to make it fully automated without requiring human input. It seems pretty trivial in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Tilpots]

Then how was Watson able to wait while Trebek made off-hand comments like "I won't even ask" (about Watson's unusual betting)? When it was Watson's turn to pick the next answer it seemed to wait until Trebek finished making his comments and told the contestant (Watson) to choose.

I missed last night's episode (I have it DVR'd) so I'm not sure of the moment you're referring to, but I found the first show on YT and at about the 2:15 mark, Trebek tells us:

...I'm sure Watson would've appreciated the applause, except for one thing; Watson can neither hear or see. It will be receiving all it's information electronically.

It sounds like Watson has to somehow be fed the info for the timing of the show. Not sure how this would work with a live show. Maybe they had somebody with a keyboard standing by. Maybe this guy:

 

[Doctor Q]

If such a powerful computer says that Toronto is a U.S. city then I'm inclined to believe it. Hi, Torontonian-Americans!

 

[Doctor Q]

A Wired article reported the results of the practice game before this real match:

1. Watson, $4400
2. Jennings, $3400
3. Rutter, $1200

Watson will donate its winnings to charity. Jennings and Rutter will donate half of whatever they win to charity.

Best quote from the Wired article:

Asked if he was nervous to be competing against a computer, Rutter quipped, "Not nervous, but I will be when Watson's progeny comes back from the future to kill me."​

 

[bobt]

Did anyone else think that Ken looked really unhappy at the end of the game last night?

 

[iJohnHenry]

If such a powerful computer says that Toronto is a U.S. city then I'm inclined to believe it. Hi, Torontonian-Americans!

I would ask how the question was framed?

Is there a city named Toronto in the US?
In: Canada, Toronto [Edit categories]
[Improve]
There are several cities called Toronto in the US.
Toronto, Illinois
Toronto, Indiana
Toronto, Iowa
Toronto, Kansas
Toronto, Missouri
Toronto, Ohio
Toronto, South Dakota


Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_there_a_city_named_Toronto_in_the_US#ixzz1E9TE9JKx

 

[Doctor Q]

The category was U.S. Cities and the answer was about a city whose largest and second largest airports have names with military connections. So the question would have to be about a city large enough to have at least two airports, and presumably not too obscure. Would Jeopardy! really expect contestants to know the name of the second largest airport in Toronto, Kansas?

Toronto in Ontario has Pearson International and 8 other airports. Lester Pearson served in the military and won a Nobel peace Prize. So I assume that's the Toronto that Watson picked for the most likely question.

 

[EazyWeazy3]

Watson has Kens number.

Ken is done!

 

[iJohnHenry]

The category was U.S. Cities and the answer was about a city whose largest and second largest airports have names with military connections. So the question would have to be about a city large enough to have at least two airports, and presumably not too obscure. Would Jeopardy! really expect contestants to know the name of the second largest airport in Toronto, Kansas?

Toronto in Ontario has Pearson International and 8 other airports. Lester Pearson served in the military and won a Nobel peace Prize. So I assume that's the Toronto that Watson picked for the most likely question.

Yes, and the other with a military connection is the Island Airport, now called the Billy Bishop Airport.

Perhaps Watson was not fed the category correctly, "U.S. Cities"??

 

[joepunk]

I did not like how they (show producers and others) stretched out the show into 3 days when the actual gaming time was containable to one maybe two days worth. And don't get me started on the annoying 3 minutes in and already there's a commercial break for it's regular programming.

 

[Wondercow]

Toronto in Ontario has Pearson International and 8 other airports. Lester Pearson served in the military and won a Nobel peace Prize. So I assume that's the Toronto that Watson picked for the most likely question.

Pearson isn't in Toronto; it's in Mississauga. The only time I've actually been annoyed with Jeopardy! was when they made the same mistake.

I can't remember exact details but the answer was something like "Lester B. Pearson International airport is in this Canadian city" and the contestant said "Toronto". I waited the rest of the show for Alex to issue the correction but it never came.

 

[yg17]

Pearson isn't in Toronto; it's in Mississauga. The only time I've actually been annoyed with Jeopardy! was when they made the same mistake.

I can't remember exact details but the answer was something like "Lester B. Pearson International airport is in this Canadian city" and the contestant said "Toronto". I waited the rest of the show for Alex to issue the correction but it never came.

I think that's an interesting scenario....airports are rarely in the actual city limits of the city they serve. I think if someone answered "Mississauga" they would've eventually ruled it correctly, but I wouldn't expect them to rule "Toronto" as incorrect. It serves Toronto and is in the GTA.

Same thing with the Cincinnati airport. It's not in Cincinnati, it's not even in Ohio. It's in Kentucky. But if the question was "The airport with the code CVG is in this city" I would accept either Cincinnati or Covington (the city in Kentucky where it is, and where CVG comes from). It's not in the Cincinnati city limits, but it serves Cincinnati and is in the greater Cincinnati area.

 

[yellow]

In watching the Watson Challenge, I was:

• fascinated
• horrified
• disgusted
• irritated
• amused

There were definitely some oddball answers that Watson came up with. I'm not entirely sure about the fairness of how the questions were fed to Watson (via TXT file, said Alex), or how it was able to differentiate between correct and incorrect answers according to Alex.

I'm also curious of the engineers made adjustments between days 1, 2, & 3.

 

[Doctor Q]

I'm also curious of the engineers made adjustments between days 1, 2, & 3.

If they did, they shouldn't have. Watson seemed to produce more incorrect questions on the final day. When Ken and Brad managed to beat Watson to the buzzer, we could see Watson's analysis on the screen and its first choice was often wrong.

 

[highdough]

Pearson isn't in Toronto; it's in Mississauga. The only time I've actually been annoyed with Jeopardy! was when they made the same mistake.

I can't remember exact details but the answer was something like "Lester B. Pearson International airport is in this Canadian city" and the contestant said "Toronto". I waited the rest of the show for Alex to issue the correction but it never came.

You could make that same case for most major airports. Heathrow isn't in London, JFK isn't in New York, Charles de Gaulle Airport isn't in Paris. Major cities are simply too dense to have a major airport inside it's boundaries. The thing is, though, when you fly into Pearson, you never say you're flying into Mississauga. You say you're flying into Toronto, just as you say you're flying into London, or Paris or New York.

I think you're being WAY too picky.

 

[Doctor Q]

The thing is, though, when you fly into Pearson, you never say you're flying into Mississauga. You say you're flying into Toronto, just as you say you're flying into London, or Paris or New York.

Unless you're a very literal-minded computer program. A good example of where it's hard to program machines to think like people.

Tourists say they are going to Los Angeles to visit Disneyland, when it's not in Los Angeles and not even in Los Angeles county. Computers hardly ever tell me they are going to Los Angeles to visit Disneyland!

 

[rdowns]

You could make that same case for most major airports. Heathrow isn't in London, JFK isn't in New York, Charles de Gaulle Airport isn't in Paris. Major cities are simply too dense to have a major airport inside it's boundaries. The thing is, though, when you fly into Pearson, you never say you're flying into Mississauga. You say you're flying into Toronto, just as you say you're flying into London, or Paris or New York.

I think you're being WAY too picky.

JFK is in NYC. NYC is not only Manhattan. And LaGuardia is inside the city limits as well.

 

[Wondercow]

You could make that same case for most major airports. Heathrow isn't in London, JFK isn't in New York, Charles de Gaulle Airport isn't in Paris. Major cities are simply too dense to have a major airport inside it's boundaries. The thing is, though, when you fly into Pearson, you never say you're flying into Mississauga. You say you're flying into Toronto, just as you say you're flying into London, or Paris or New York.

I think you're being WAY too picky.

In normal, everyday life I completely agree. But Jeopardy! isn't normal, everyday life. Any fan of the show knows just how exact and particular one must be in his response and that sometimes the questions are designed to be obscure and tricky.

Besides, I don't know about other cities, but if you were to tell the good folks of Mississauga that their airport is in Toronto you'd probably get a verbal lashing!

 

[Doctor Q]

On Star Trek Next Generation the character named Data couldn't use contractions, despite his sophistication with human language. I always thought that was a clever way to remind us that he wasn't really human (oops I mean "was not really human" ) but I also thought that is was silly from a technical point of view. Data could understand when people said "it's" or "can't" -- and that's the hard part. Saying "it's" instead of "it is" and "can't" instead of "cannot" would be trivial for Dr. Soong, his programmer.

At least I thought so. Now we have Watson, who omitted the articles in his questions. Where a human would say the question was "What is the United States?" he would say "What is United States?" instead. Were articles too hard a challenge for the IBM programmers?