IBM Watson: The future of A.I.

Pic #1: IBM Watson logo

I. Intoduction

Pic #2: IBM sign outside its headquarters

The game of Jeopardy has been used to show the amount of knowledge one knows. Jeopardy was originally made for humans, but why not see if a robot could compete? Well, the company at IBM is doing just that(Pic #2). For a few years now they have been using high-tec computers to create a machine that can not only compete in Jeopardy, but also win against the best players of Jeopardy. But can a robot really out-smart a human at their own game? We will find out.

II. Discovery/ How it works

Pic #3: Picture of IBM Watson supercomputer

Starting in 2007, IBM started their most ambitious project to date, IBM Watson(Pic #3). The main scientist on this program is Dr. David Ferrucci. But why have these scientists spent some much time and money on a single project? The answer to that question is, "The oppurtunity to pursue an exploratory project that took an area of science that I was most interested in, and to bring together a team of world class people, and push the limits - it doesn't get any better than that" as quoted by Dr. David Ferrucci. And the only way to do this is to spend that much time and money to achieve this. One of the main things that the programmers of Watson are required to do is create algorithims that the machine can do to simulate what a human competitor would do in the competition. These are: listening to the question, thinking of the answer, buzzing in and saying the answer. Without these, Watson would not be able to function and do what a human would do in the same position.

Video:

1. http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/what-is-watson/a-system-designed-for- answers.html.

III. Purpose of Watson

Pic #4: Picture of Watson Versus the two Jeopardy

champions

The purpose of Watson is to be able to compete in a real-life Jeopardy game(Pic #4). The only problem is that Watson would have to understand the questions about a broad range of stuff that happened in the world, current or new. Which the programmers would have to put into the database. He would also have to undrstand what the person who was saying the answer was talking about, which would be hard for a machine to do. Also to make things harder Jeopardy has the questions in the form of answers, and the competitor would have to respond in the format of a question. On February 14th-16th IBM Watson will be on a live Jeopardy show to complete what he was created to do, with a winnings going to charity. If he does succeed in winning the competion this would be a major improvant on current machine technology.

Video:

1. http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/what-is-watson/why-jeopardy.html.

IV. Impact on the world

This shows that machines can in fact think/ act like a human and in maybe 10 years we could mass produce compact, upgraded versions of Watson to the general public. He would be like a walking Google. Or it could turn into a Terminator movie where the robots take over and enslave humans(Pic #5). If he was created into a A.I. by IBM this could become like a must have item for every household. Or IBM could, you know, be renamed Skynet.

Pic #5: Terminator....(Created by Skynet)

V. Journal Article

In this journal article below it talks about all the algorithims used in Watson. There are some for speech recognition and others for deciding whether or not to buzz in. They also talk about how he will not buzz in if he isn't sure with his answer, which there is also another algorithim for that.

Article: http://www.ams.org/journals/mcom/1965-19-090/S0025-5718-1965-0178586-1/S0025-5718-1965-0178586-1.pdf

VI. References

Websites:

1. http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/

2. http://www.ams.org/journals/mcom/1965-19-090/S0025-5718-1965-0178586-1/S0025-5718-1965-0178586-1.pdf

Pics:

1.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5281/5261148454_c466b99117_z.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/21317126%40N04/5261148454/&usg=__OovpUHN3G7T1Enf6A0_3HdxIsgY=&h=506&w=506&sz=105&hl=en&start=17&zoom=1&tbnid=ASt-DYCUX2-h3M:&tbnh=115&tbnw=117&ei=kSlYTeeCPYy4sAO3j-WeDA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dibm%2Bwatson%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2ADSA_enUS404%26biw%3D1003%26bih%3D519%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C545&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=577&vpy=183&dur=908&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=111&ty=88&oei=iilYTeDMFYa9tweLwYm0DQ&page=2&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:17&biw=1003&bih=519

2.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2011/01/13/58914-ibm-watson.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/100879/20110113/ibm-s-watson-computer-to-play-jeopardy.htm&usg=__xq0ttaKfxttjJHsa3dNjs5HxiKo=&h=506&w=690&sz=78&hl=en&start=17&zoom=1&tbnid=i1wQSlhpBwvFdM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=136&ei=AypYTez2EYSWsgP3_pGjDA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dibm%2Bwatson%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2ADSA_enUS404%26biw%3D1003%26bih%3D519%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=475&oei=iilYTeDMFYa9tweLwYm0DQ&page=2&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:17&tx=76&ty=65

3.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn.venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/watson-ai-jeopardy.jpg&imgrefurl=http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/13/ibm-watson-ai-defeats-humans/&usg=__-LjTRyQSXEHabngRUX58KrOXDac=&h=368&w=630&sz=57&hl=en&start=33&zoom=1&tbnid=0Tfrim_sJ5BzwM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=154&ei=RypYTeTlBZOCsQOBpsGcDA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dibm%2Bwatson%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2ADSA_enUS404%26biw%3D1003%26bih%3D519%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C856&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=683&vpy=253&dur=2837&hovh=171&hovw=294&tx=246&ty=120&oei=iilYTeDMFYa9tweLwYm0DQ&page=3&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:33&biw=1003&bih=519

4.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://scrapetv.com/News/News%2520Pages/Technology/images/skynet-terminator.jpg&imgrefurl=http://scrapetv.com/News/News%2520Pages/Technology/pages/Google-to-release-their-own-version-of-Skynet-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html&usg=__wpLoAmfapvD2PQ_4Mej_-aoX4rM=&h=232&w=410&sz=23&hl=en&start=0&sig2=G0VXo8voGWhomNeDfldHyw&zoom=1&tbnid=3u0tV2NvA1iSjM:&tbnh=78&tbnw=137&ei=6U5cTe7DKIm2twfWn4yRDA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dskynet%2Bterminator%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1020%26bih%3D519%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=85&vpy=108&dur=546&hovh=169&hovw=299&tx=145&ty=76&oei=y05cTb_pF4yjtgfX4Oj-Cg&page=1&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

5.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.fastcompany.com/upload/ibm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fastcompany.com/1691779/ibm-breeding-future-employees-at-company-sponsored-high-school&usg=__Wl1vhFVDwUsHKubity3Ul2dp0Fc=&h=305&w=512&sz=41&hl=en&start=0&sig2=9hNmPtYtuhHs2uXz9w5Hhw&zoom=1&tbnid=H0cnvYemCgu0VM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=166&ei=KFBcTbTRFpO3twf63LTdCw&prev=/images%3Fq%3DIBM%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1020%26bih%3D519%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C156&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=241&vpy=203&dur=1529&hovh=173&hovw=291&tx=174&ty=68&oei=IVBcTYKmNtODtgeGt82XCw&page=1&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0&biw=1020&bih=519