The above video shows an IBM supercomputer, called Watson, actually participating in a game of Jeopardy, one of the biggest TV game shows of all time. Not only is Watson participating, he, she or it, is doing so using language abilities and skills that are pretty much the equal to that of its two other human participants.
As you can see and hear for yourself, Watson, with his encyclopedic treasure trove of knowledge, does a pretty impressive job of competing, and that is exactly what Watson will officially be doing in an upcoming Jeopardy to be broadcast in the fall.
Watson, as the video clearly illustrates, isn't exactly what you would call perfect or foolproof, but, on the other hand, he, she or it, is what I would definitely call pretty dang-tooting close and quite impressive nonetheless. If anything, this warm-up demo clearly showcases some of the incredible progress and advances that have been made over the past decade in artificial intelligence, and the progress that thus helps to bring us all to the day when computers will be as just advanced and human like as the ones that we now see in science fiction movies such as 2001 A Space Odyssey, Star Trek and many others.
Watson reminds me somewhat of multi-touch, a technology that only a few years ago, or BIP (before the iPhone), was simply confined to the lab where it needed bulky, million dollar gadgets in order to perform what the iPhone can now routinely performs cheaply and in a package so small it can easily fit in your hands or into your back pockets!
In conclusion, the question naturally arises, with technology such as Apple's Siri,among others, just how far off are we when we can expect to see such super advanced, super computing 'Watson' like technologies filter their way down to everyday gadgets that the average Joe like you or me can use? The answer, naturally is that we really don't know for sure, but I am sure that if the iPhone is any guide, then it probably won't be that too far off at all, and it's probably a lot closer than what some might actually think.
And that's my 2 cents 4 this Thursday, June 17, 2010
Via: Engadget
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