Well, after the first round, it’s abundantly clear that neither the human contestants or the supercomputer contestant have a serious advantage.  In fact, during the first round of Jeopardy!, nobody really seems to have found solid footing.  The IBM supercomputer Watson is tied with Brad Rutter with $5000 after the opening round of man versus machine Jeopardy!.  Ken Jennings is trailing the other two, but that simply gives him a chance to lead off for the second round.

Indeed, those who feared computer dominance are mistaken.  Watson is no better than a good Jeopardy! contestant thus far, and he’s prone to making some very silly mistakes, like repeating answers said by others and a little bit of confusion.  Still, he’s not embarrassing himself, which is a good result (and he may turn it up a notch during the final two rounds and pull away handily).  Leave it to Alex Trebek to sum up Watson’s first go-round of Jeopardy.

“So, what have we learned so far: Watson’s very bright, very fast, but he had some weird little moments once in a while,” said Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek.  “And how many of those will we encounter tomorrow when we play double and final Jeopardy!?”

Tags: IBM, Watson, Jeopardy, Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, Alex Trebek, Jeopardy computer challenge, Watson tied with Brad Rutter on Jeopardy, IBM computer on Jeopardy, humans challenged by supercomputer on Jeopardy, game shows, technology, Watson tied with human after one round of Jeopardy

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