Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

[Rubin0]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

I can't even outsmart my own dog. Props to these people if they can even outsmart this thing even once.

[Crashfan3]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

They probably found some old couple in Mississauga who had every episode of Jeopardy on tape, and had the robot watch every single tape.

Poor robot.

[justin_ator]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

I don't recall the amount right now, but doesn't it search through several terabytes of information?

[ninjaKIWI]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

I don't recall the amount right now, but doesn't it search through several terabytes of information?

It has 15TB of RAM, but the information it searches through is actually under 1TB.

[aperson]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

Challenges on the horizon? Computers that can beat the best Go players, or even poker players.

Limit? Done. No limit? Probably at least 20 years.
Go? I have no idea but the combinatorial complexity on that makes me think it's also a pretty big longshot.

[fido123]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

It does have close to perfect programming. It can't find the answer instantly because its searching through databases of billions and billions of things. Even with the most efficient algorithms humans can still occasionally out preform it. It just shows how amazing the human brain is at recalling a specific piece of information at will.

The way the program can retrieve, and store data is all a part of that perfection that I don't think any of us will see in our lifetime. We would have to look at how the actual brain works, which like you said, shows how amazing the brain is. Programming perfection has a LONG way to go.

[who_cares973]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

I remember when watson played its first game. Started off amazingly and then just started bombing question after question

[sumzup]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

I thought it was kind of unfair in one respect. Human reaction time is much slower; there were definitely some moments where Ken and Brad clearly knew the answer, but Watson was able to ring in with robotic (heh) precision every single time before any human could have ever done so. It's no surprise that Watson wins on almost all the questions it's sure about (i.e. it instantly rings in on those questions it outputs high "correctness percentages" for).

Also, thread title is retarded. First of all, beating Watson on the Final Jeopardy question does not mean you outsmarted it. Second, even applying the adjective "smartest" to a computer is fallacious. What does smartness even mean with regards to computers? Watson's certainly not the most powerful computer around, and it's software/algorithms are tailored to a very specific task. I guarantee that it would fail if you tried to retarget it (as it currently exists) towards a generic web search.

That said, this is very impressive stuff. I was at a CS department event where there were some IBM people/other researchers who showed us some of the technological underpinnings, and the algorithms are definitely very sophisticated.

Some interesting facts:

1) Watson runs on 3000 processors; when a test was done with just one processor (a typical 2.6 GHz processor you might find in your desktop), it took 2 hours to output an answer.

2) Watson wasn't programmed with any strategy at all; so you get instances where if a human contestant rings in and answers wrongly, Watson will ring in and answer with whatever answer it's most confident about, even if it's the same wrong answer. Of course, it can't really interact with/process that information, so it kind of makes sense.

3) Several factors are weighted and analyzed in the process of answering a question, and hard limits don't really exist. This is why Watson ended up choosing Toronto for Final Jeopardy, even though the category was U.S. Cities. The subroutines it followed ended up just deprioritizing that information a little in favor of the other clues, which presumablypointed to Toronto somehow.

4) IBM is keeping secret the exact sources of information they used to build the databases Watson relies on. Wonder what's so special about it that they want to keep it under wraps...

The way the program can retrieve, and store data is all a part of that perfection that I don't think any of us will see in our lifetime. We would have to look at how the actual brain works, which like you said, shows how amazing the brain is. Programming perfection has a LONG way to go.

Agreed, although it's not like the brain is perfectly programmed, either. The brain works well at the tasks it has adapted to be able to do, but that doesn't mean it's perfect...it's not like it was intelligently designed. >_>

[Reincarnate]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

Before each game they run Watson through countless trivia tests -- the more it gets wrong, the more it learns and becomes better at identifying an answer given the framework it uses for peeling apart inquiries. It's a glorified genetic algo.

It's really impressive to see it in action -- awesome stuff.

[fido123]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

Never said it was, but it's better than anything we have now and could learn probably learn a lot from learning how the brain works at a "hardware" and "software" level.

On another note I don't know anything about biology, but wouldn't a brain also have the equivalent to a file-system? Does it store values how CMOS? Are those values binary, or do different voltages/amperages of electricity translate into other values? I often wonder how similar a computer and a brain are.

[Reincarnate]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

Well, check out the Blue Brain Project, fido, if you want to look into that more.

Our brain is very similar to a computer but they run on different underlying properties and the brain is insanely more complex. It's a huge mapped network of brain cells with billions upon billions of connections, and different permutations of these firings result in different interpretations of stimuli and decision-making.

[Duplica]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

only thing this machine doesn't have is common sense, which was its downfall obviously.

[Wineandbread]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

What is Toronto?????
owned... but not really lol xd

Allowing a computer to interpret the language that they use in Jeopardy is really an amazing feat. It didn't get everything right but it didn't really miss very many.

[benguino]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

Programming is all based upon processes. For a computer to be able to teach itself, it would need to be able to create it's own processes, or in other words, be able to teach itself. As of right now, that technology is a still far way off, and to be able to program a process capable of creating it's own processes would be a very challenging for any group of programmers. Plus, if it was a computer or robot that could teach itself to do things, that would put the programmers' job at risk. If the robot can teach itself how to do things, society wouldn't need programmers to write these new processes for these self-teaching robots. Just wanted to throw in my two cents since people have the misconception that robots can just teach themselves how to do things based on the robots "observations."

[Izzy]

Re: Outsmarting the worlds smartest computer

Well yea, there is no such thing as true artificial intelligence yet. Would be exciting though..