Man Vs. AI: an update

Dr Yuk-ching Hon

18 February 2011

Well, which contestant did you bet on in the man against computer quiz show?

Alas, Watson, the IBM supercomputer has expectedly crushed Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, the two most successful players in the US long-running quiz show and is now Jeopardy king.

It turns out that even before the marathon quiz show, IBM has already announced research projects with eight universities, including MIT and the University of Texas to explore further potential uses of Watson’s “Deep Question” technology, reported USA Today.

The multinational technology company has also signed a deal with Nuance Communications Inc. of Burlington, Maine, maker of the popular Dragon speech recognition software, to develop a doctor’s assistant tools utilizing Watson’s ability to answer complex questions.

So Watson’s partaking of the high profiled quiz is anything but a clever publicity stunt by IBM.

Anyway, let’s not get too worried by Watson’s victory over Jennings and Rutter. The show also lays open some of its weakness, critics claimed. In the competition, it has made mistakes that average adult human being won’t make.

Don’t forget it took the work of 25 IBM scientists and engineers over four years to develop Watson. What if we can devote the same kind of funding and resources to educate our children!