Jeopardy-Playing Supercomputer Beats Humans

An anonymous reader writes "Ok, this was just a practice round. But in a short demonstration today IBM's Jeopardy-playing supercomputer, a whiz by the name of Watson, thoroughly bested two talented human contestants. IBM has been working on this artificial intelligence project for years to prove that a computer can be programmed to understand conversational speech and wordplay. In today's demo, Watson seems to have proved the point: it started out on a roll in the category 'Chicks Dig Me,' about women and archaeology. The real man versus machine face-off (in which the same contestants compete for a $1 million prize) will be taped tomorrow, and aired in February."

"The pod bay doors cannot be opened."

[MrEricSir]

"What is the mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it?"

Re:Soon, no more call centers

[Carnivorous Vulgaris]

They will give the AI a heavy Indian accent, because it's what callers expect.

So what this is saying...

[TheL0ser]

So the AI triumphed, and they're calling it a huge success? I wonder how the programmers feel about this. Pretty satisfied, I'd imagine.

Re:Verizon, Fedex already there

[PopeRatzo]

Interactive voice menus are probably singlehandedly the worst innovation in menu systems ever.

But tell me it's not entertaining to listen to someone else dealing with an interactive voice menu. It's a great one-sided conversation:

"Yes"

"Yes"

"Billing"

"I said BILLING!"

"Question about charge."

"Question about charge"

"Problem with charge"

"Jesus Christ. YOU CHARGED ME FOR SOMETHING I DIDN'T BUY!"

"No."

"No.

"NO NO NO NO! YOU FUCKING MACHINE! GIVE ME A HUMAN BEING!" (Followed by insane button mashing)

It's like an old Bob Newhart routine, if Bob Newhart had Tourette's Syndrome and anger management issues.