Monday, February 21, 2011

It's All In The Wrist

People are still talking about Watson the IBM supercomputer besting two bad-ass Jeopardy champs what seems like weeks ago now- even though I think it might have been like a week and a half ago now. I'm not sure. People seem to be worried about the 'rise of the machines' and things of that nature, but really, while Big Blue and the Chess match versus Gary Kasparov was a better test, Watson vs. the Jeopardy Kings was a disingenous one. Knowledge is only one part of Jeopardy- the other part, as all the world knows, is how fast you can buzz in.

And I'm sorry, but a super computer is going to have a huge advantage over human reflexes when it comes to buzzing in. So I think maybe it was a nice ratings stunt, but a fair test? Not really.

No comments:

Post a Comment