Well, in the end, it wasn’t even close.  Watson’s tenuous performance in the first round of Jeopardy was merely a little rope-a-dope, suckering in the marks before lowering the boom.  Watson’s gaudy second round of Jeopardy only set the stage for the third game, which Watson dominated.  Among meat contestants, Ken Jennings’ two-day total bested that of Brad Rutter, with Jennings winning $24,000 and Watson scoring $21,600.  Watson’s victory nets IBM a cool $1 million dollar prize; Jennings takes home $300,000 and Rutter $200,000.

Still, there’s one thing that humans have that computers don’t, and that’s a sense of humor.  Hence, Ken Jennings’ referencing The Simpsons in his subversive, subservient salute to his IBM-manufactured master and electronic trivia guru.  While the performance itself was impressive (no doubt thanks to Watson’s advantage in buzzing-in speed), the really impressive things to the experts was Watson’s ability to process spoken human language.

Image:  Screen cap from a video on TV Squad

Tags: IBM, Watson, IBM computer Watson beats humans at Jeopardy, Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, Watson defeats Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, Watson beats humans at Jeopardy, Watson wins 147 in Jeopardy, Watson beats human Jeopardy champions, Jeopardy IBM Challenge

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