Watson and Jeopardy

Colin McGregor colin.mc151-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
Wed Feb 16 15:40:27 UTC 2011


On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 7:51 AM, Stewart C. Russell <scruss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 11-02-16 07:34 , John Myshrall wrote:
>>
>> I watched last nights episode. Very impressive.
>
> Yeah, but now a computer can do it, it's another thing we don't need to.
> Like long division.

Well, I watched it as well. Good show, but of course where the
computer got things wrong was arguably more interesting than where it
was right, which last night included the final question. For those who
don't watch Jeopardy, contestants have to come up with questions that
would solicit the answers given by the show host, Alex Trebek...

Last night's final answer was:

U.S. CITIES: ITS LARGEST AIRPORT NAMED FOR A WORLD WAR II HERO; ITS
SECOND LARGEST FOR A WORLD WAR II BATTLE

The two human players came up with "What is Chicago?", the computer
came up with "What is Toronto????". Now, the final answer didn't
matter in this case, as the computer had built up enough of a lead in
the first part of the program that a wrong question at the end didn't
stop the machine from winning. Still, lets see, Toronto is:

- Not a U.S. city
- Largest airport named after former Prime Minister Person, who during
World War II was a diplomat (not a World War II hero).
- Officially the Island airport is named after Billy Bishop, a World
War I (not World War II) fighter pilot and combat hero.

In other words fails on all points. One could sort of understand a
response like say New York City where two of the three points are
satisfied:

- A U.S. city
- Largest airport  named after President Kennedy who during World War
II commanded PT-109 and saw combat (so, not what he is best known for,
but a World War II hero)
- Second largest airport LaGuardia is named after a former Mayor

Colin.

> Kind of reminds me of this comic from a local artist:
> <http://www.viruscomix.com/page490.html>
> (caution, mild swearies)
>
>  Stewart
> --
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