That Watson is Really Smart

Having a computer play a three day round of Jeopardy with the two best human players has yielded no real surprises. After day two, Watson, the computer, is wiping out the competition. I don't think that Ken and Brad, the two human contestants, are any less intelligent; they are just a little slower.

It would be nice if the two humans would lose it and start swearing at Watson for being such a click-button hog... or Watson would have a "senior moment"after attempting to retrieve an answer to a question about the Abbott and Costello routine, 'Who's on First'. It sure fooled Dustin Hoffman in the Rainman.

I am surprised that Watson actually missed a couple of questions. If you can read and retain a million pages in three seconds, you should have high percentage of correct answers. Maybe I expect a lot from artificial intelligence from watching so many sci-fi movies ...and the fact that I have no idea what it takes to get a computer to understand the human language or to associate dissimilar words. I have enough trouble typing a complete sentence.

I am willing to bet that Watson has a few friends doing some HFT work in New Jersey. Front-running trades by the milli-second is a lot like hogging the Jeopardy click-button. Speed rules.

I can't wait to see ASIMO on Wheel of Fortune.