Watson Doesn't Know It Won on 'Jeopardy!'

Posted by Chiachi Lo on February 23, 2011 at 6:26am

"IBM invented an ingenious program-not a computer that can think"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703407304576154313126987674.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

While it's cool that we have a computer program that can solve Jeopardy, I agree with the author that Watson doesn't really have "intelligence" in the sense we use the word. It seems to me that Watson is just a more powerful Google Search at the moment, relying on huge databases and fast search algorithms to find answers.

What do you think about Watson beating human contestants in Jeopardy? Do you think computers can have "intelligence"? If so, do you fear that one day they may become "smarter" than us human beings?

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Replies

  • Chelsea Weininger March 11, 2011 at 1:14pm
    i don't think that computers will become smarter than humans because computers are stored collective knowledge from humans, thus without the human knowledge to begin with there would be nothing
  • Earl Edwards Jr. March 10, 2011 at 10:01pm
    I'm not surprised at all that a computer is able to beat humans in jeopardy. Not only can it find the answers faster than a human can, but it can find the answer to any question because of its databases. Think about it... If we don't know something we usually "google" it. Even with this being said, I don't think that computer will one day be "smarter" than human beings
  • Jenn Korona March 7, 2011 at 1:24pm
    I do not think computers are more intelligent. All of the "knowledge" that a computer has comes from humans. When Watson retrieves the answer, this answer was originally generated by a human. I do not think that computers will become smarter because we would have to build them to be smarter.
    • Shayna Clavin > Jenn Korona March 11, 2011 at 7:51am
      I completely agree. It befuddles me that people would even believe that a computer will in fact be smarter than humans.  We are the reasons computers are so intelligent.
  • Bryan M. Hee March 5, 2011 at 6:51pm
    I think it's really cool that people have made a computer so complex with such a comprehensive data storage system.  I do not think that a computer can be intelligent because everything is based off of algorithms.  I don't  believe we function on algorithms and am not afraid of computers taking over the world. Anyone who has seen I Robot knows that humans always win
  • Elvia (Mary) Lopez March 1, 2011 at 8:35pm
    No, I don't think computers can have intelligence. Nonetheless, all the insane advances in technology can be slightly alarming. As a kid, the movie Terminator always freaked me out.
  • Matthew Shemirani February 25, 2011 at 9:44pm
    I also do not understand how the whole Watson/jeopardy thing works. How is the computer controlled? I don't understand how it is programmed to play. Why would it not just buzz before the humans everytime?
  • Matthew Shemirani February 25, 2011 at 9:43pm
    I mean a computer has the ability to track all factual pieces of knowledge that are known when it comes to tangible and useful information. The internet is a collection of everyone's knowledge put together so by the knowledge sense, a computer is already "smarter."
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