What is the real significance of the recent victory by the IBM “Watson” computer system on the quiz show Jeopardy!? It certainly wasn’t a profitable undertaking: IBM’s $1 million winnings, which will be given to charity, pale in comparison to the estimated $1 billion price tag of the project. A somewhat more tangible benefit to IBM is that the project has reportedly done wonders in burnishing IBM’s image as a leading-edge technology company, especially among students (see FINS article). It has also already led to various co-development contracts in the health and commerce sectors.
The real significance is IBM’s demonstration
Continue reading What does Watson’s victory really mean?
It’s official: IBM’s “Watson” computer system has defeated two of the brightest minds that our species could put forward for battle, namely legendary Jeopardy! champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Ken Jennings, recognizing that Watson had an insurmountable lead heading into Final Jeopardy (the final question of the match), summed up the situation by writing on his computer slate below his final bid, “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.”
Unlike Tuesday’s round, at least Wednesday’s contest was not a runaway. Watson started out strong, but then stumbled on a variety of subjects. For example, Watson incorrectly answered “What
Continue reading IBM’s “Watson” victorious: Our new computer overlords?
Yes, the title is a bit strong, but there is no gentle way to say it: Jeopardy! champs Jennings and Rutter were destroyed by the IBM “Watson” computer system in today’s “Double Jeopardy” round. When the final totals were tallied after the “Final Jeopardy” question, Watson had $35,734, versus $10,400 for Brad Rutter and $4,800 for Ken Jennings.
Watson clearly established its dominance by being first to ring in on 25 of 30 answers in the Double Jeopardy round, and in getting 24 of the 25 correct. It now has a commanding lead as the contestants head to Wednesday’s
Continue reading Watson creams Jennings and Rutter in second day of Jeopardy!
Last night (in North America), the long-awaited match between IBM’s “Watson” question-answering computer system and legendary Jeopardy! champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter began. A good part of this first program was devoted to an overview of the Watson system and its development, so only a few minutes were devoted to actual competition.
However, even in this brief introduction, Watson performed very impressively. In fact, in the first few minutes of the match, Watson performed so well that it looked like it would be a runaway victory, with the machine making shambles of its human competitors. Even in arenas such
Continue reading After first day on Jeopardy!, Watson is tied for lead
The long-awaited day of reckoning has arrived for IBM’s Jeopardy!-playing computer named “Watson”. Beginning tonight (14 Feb 2011) in North America, Watson will compete on the quiz show Jeopardy! against legendary champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.
Ken Jennings broke an all-time Jeopardy! record with 74 consecutive wins in 2004. Brad Rutter has never been beaten on Jeopardy!, and even beat Ken Jennings in a 2005 championship round. Both Jennings and Rutter have almost superhuman abilities to understand clues and instantly retrieve answers on an enormous range of topics.
From all accounts, they will need their superhuman abilities.
Continue reading IBM’s Watson system starts Jeopardy! competition today
Researchers from Emory University, the University of Wisconsin Madison, Yale, and the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany have discovered that partition numbers behave like fractals, possessing an infinitely-repeating structure.
The partition number P(N) of an integer N is the number of distinct ways in which N can be written as a sum of positive integers. For instance, 6 = 6, 5+1, 4+2, 4+1+1, 3+3, 3+2+1, 3+1+1+1, 2+2+2, 2+2+1+1, 2+1+1+1+1, and 1+1+1+1+1+1, so that P(6) = 11. P(N) grows very rapidly with N. For instance, P(100) = 190,569,292.
Partition numbers have captured the imagination of mathematicians since the time of
Continue reading Researchers find fractal structure to partition function
As we mentioned in an earlier Blog, the US television show Jeopardy! has agreed to host a showdown between a new question-answering computer system developed by IBM and two former Jeopardy! champions. The new system, named “Watson” by IBM, accepts input in the form of natural English inquiries, and then responds with its best determination of the answer. For the Jeopardy! contest, of course, the roles of “question” and “answer” are reversed.
In a practice round conducted on 13 Jan 2011 at IBM’s Yorktown Heights Research Center, Watson defeated its human challengers (former Jeopardy! champions Ken Jennings and Brad
Continue reading IBM’s Watson Defeats Jeopardy champs in trial round
A selection of papers authored (or co-authored) by Jonathan Borwein and Peter Borwein has been published by PSIpress. The selection includes several papers of significant historical interest:
Jonathan Borwein and Peter Borwein, Experimental and computational mathematics: Selected writings, PSIpress, Portland, OR, 2010.
Here is a brief synopsis, from the publisher’s website:
A quiet revolution in mathematical computing and scientific visualization took place in the latter half of the 20th century. These developments have dramatically enhanced modes of mathematical insight and opportunities for “exploratory” computational experimentation. This volume collects the experimental and computational contributions of Jonathan and Peter Borwein over the
Continue reading Selected papers of Jonathan Borwein and Peter Borwein
A German translation of The Computer as Crucible, which was co-authored by one of the present bloggers, has been published by Springer-Verlag. Here is a synopsis of the English edition:
Keith Devlin and Jonathan Borwein, two well-known mathematicians with expertise in different mathematical specialties but with a common interest in experimentation in mathematics, have joined forces to create this introduction to experimental mathematics. They cover a variety of topics and examples to give the reader a good sense of the current state of play in the rapidly growing new field of experimental mathematics. The writing is clear and the explanations
Continue reading German edition of The Computer as Crucible
As we mentioned in an earlier Blog post, IBM has been developing a state-of-the-art question-answering computer system, named “Watson” (for Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM).
The basic computer hardware is a module from IBM’s “BlueGene” series, which, in the configuration used for this research project, would cost somewhat over $1,000,000. The software employs some state-of-the-art techniques for automatically extracting information from large files and databases. After completion of the project, IBM intends to market this system as an intelligent natural-language information query system. Potential uses range from a tool for online user support personnel to corporate planning
Continue reading IBM’s Watson to compete on Jeopardy! with Jennings with Rutter
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