Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2011)
February 23, 2011 The Portland Observer Black HiStOiy Month Page 13 l-technology Machine Trounces Man on Jeopardy! Showcases advances in science and computing who has in previous appearances won a total of $3.3 million, followed with $21,600. "I for one welcome our new com puter overlords," Jennings wrote next to his last answer, dis playing one human quality con spicuously absent in W atson - a sense of humor. IBM plans to donate all of W atson's winnings to charity. The Armonk, New York-based company spends around $6 bil lion a year on research and devel opment. An unspecified part of that goes to what it calls "grand challenges," or big, m ultiyearsci- ence projects such as W atson and Deep Blue. IBM has said it plans to use W atson's linguistic and analyti cal abilities to develop new prod ucts in areas such as medical di agnosis. (AP) — Under the category of artificial intelligence, it represents both a loss and a trium ph for hu mans. What is "W atson"? An IBM com puter handily beat two human com petitors on the popular U.S. quiz show "Jeop ardy!" in a three-day showdown that ended last W ednesday, high lighting at the sam e tim e the progress people have m ade in making machines able to think like them. « e r S l X X n a . Z 1 dneasf; M achines Corp president Thomas W atson, is a show case of the com pany's expertise in advanced science and com puting. W atson showed off its ency clopedic know ledge o f topics ranging from ancient languages to fashion design, along with a few glitches. "Vedic, dating back at least 4000 years, is the earliest dialect of this classical language of India," was one o f the clues given by host Alex Trebek. "What is Sanskrit?" Watson an swered in the show's question-as- an-answer style, before going on to solve clues ranging from agricul tural policy in the European Union to the designer Marc Jacobs. The latest challenge shows that IBM - which turns 100 years old this year - wants to stay at the forefront of technology, even as companies such as Google Inc and A pple Inc have becom e the industry's darlings. What makes Watson particularly advanced, even compared to Deep B lue, IB M 's c h e ss-p la y in g supercom puter that beat world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, is its ability to find answers from ambiguous clues, such as this one: "It's a poor workman who blames these." "W hat are tools?" answ ered W atson. W atson wasn't perfect, how ever, and made some baffling er rors such as com ing up with "Dor othy Parker" instead of "The Ele ments of Style" and repeating other contestants' m istakes. In the end, however, Watson won with $77,147 while Ken Jennings, who won 74 games in a row during the show's 2004-2005 season, came in second with $24,000. Brad Rutter, NEW N O W D E L IV E R IN G Y o u r fa v o r ite n e ig h b o r h o o d g r o c e r y s to r e n o w d e liv e r s g r o q e r ie s r ig h t t o y o u r h o m e o r o ffic e . w w w .n e w s e a s o n s m a r k e t.c o m <ou click, we deliver, (or pull up for pick up)