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Man Ties With Machine in Jeopardy Showdown

Humans fight back after IBM's Watson takes early lead

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 14, 2011 11:09 PM CST

(Newser) – The first round of Jeopardy's three-game man versus supercomputer showdown finished Monday night with humanity having fended off the rise of the machine. Human player Brad Rutter, the game show's record money-winner, was tied with IBM supercomputer Watson at $5,000 at the close of play, AP reports. The other human contestant, Ken Jennings, who has the longest winning streak at 74 games, was far behind with $2,000.

At one point, Watson had $4,000 while his human rivals had just $200 each and a rout appeared likely, but Rutter's comeback was aided by a few slip-ups on the computer's part. After Jennings had incorrectly answered "1920s" to a question, Watson gave the same incorrect answer. "Watson is very bright, very fast, but he has some weird little moments," host Alex Trebek said.

Host Alex Trebek, left, poses with contestants Ken Jennings, center, and Brad Rutter and a computer named Watson. (AP Photo/Jeopardy Productions, Inc.)

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Showing 3 of 6 comments

professortech

Feb 15, 2011 9:23 AM CST

No Alex, Watson is not "bright". It just has a large database of general knowledge and effective algorithms that allow it to respond quickly to a query with fairly accurate information. The people who designed the machine and created the algorithms, their the ones who are bright.

Aitchondo

Feb 15, 2011 6:24 AM CST

Was I the only one who beat out all three of these guys? Of course, I had the advantage of beer.

Nwambe

Feb 15, 2011 6:23 AM CST

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Man Ties With Machine in Jeopardy Showdown

Humans fight back after IBM's Watson takes early lead

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