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Nerds Bet Machine Can Beat Man on Jeopardy

IBM says the digital-human match could be the next big step for artificial intelligence

By Nathan Deuel, Newser User

Posted Apr 27, 2009 10:27 AM CDT

(Newser) – Hal, meet Watson. IBM announced it will unleash a new supercomputer program, named after founder Thomas J. Watson, which they say could beat human competitors on Jeopardy, the New York Times reports. More advanced than the software that beat chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997, Watson will weigh nearly infinite relationship ranges to make comparisons and interpretations.

"The big goal is to get computers to be able to converse in human terms," says the IBM team leader. "And we’re not there yet." The human contestant? IBM says they are considering Ken Jennings, who won Jeopardy 74 consecutive times and collected $2.52 million in 2004.

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'Jeopardy' winner Ken Jennings appears on 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' in 2004. (Getty Images)

Chess legend Gary Kasparov in New York at Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin)

Can machine beat man? (©Shawn M. Smith)

IBM Corporation logo. (PRNewsFoto/IBM Corporation)

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Ken Jennings, the man with the longest winning streak in 'Jeopardy' history, attempts to win $1 million. (showwatcher17)

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“We’ve only begun to talk about it. We all agree that it shouldn’t look like Robby the Robot.”
- Jeopardy executive producer Harry Friedman, discussing the gender of the computer program's avatar

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Nerds Bet Machine Can Beat Man on Jeopardy