As someone who reads tech blogs and listens to tech podcasts -- and with a girlfriend who watches "Jeopardy!" daily -- I was aware that Monday night would bring the first of three episodes of the popular quiz show in which two past champs would take on IBM's new supercomputer, Watson.

I had a passing curiosity, but I wasn't exactly counting down the days. I figured with all the information that could be packed into, say, an iPhone, jamming enough knowledge to beat two of the game's best into a supercomputer with multiple servers and cooling systems wouldn't be too hard for the braniacs at IBM. But watching Monday night I was reminded of just how trickily "Jeopardy!" questions -- or answers, if you prefer -- can be phrased.

 "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek, left, with contestants
Ken Jennings, Watson, and Brad Rutter.

Watching Watson (well, his avatar anyway) parse the keywords, come up with three ranked answers and then either buzz in or not with its top guess was truly fascinating to watch. Strangely, his performance in Monday's first round reminded me most of a poker player who gets hot -- Watson jumped out to a lead quickly -- before going on tilt -- the computer gave several incorrect answers in a later stretch.

Those who want to know more about Watson can go here. You might also want to visit the official "Jeopardy!" site.

It was good television. Skipping the next two shows? That does not compute.

-- Mark Meszoros
Entertainment@News-Herald.com
www.Twitter.com/NHFeatures

"Jeopardy!" is a favorite among the night staff at The News-Herald, so we're getting pretty excited for what is coming next week.

The Associated Press

Feb. 14, 15 and 16, an IBM computer named Watson will compete on the game show against top champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

From The Associated Press:

Watson is powered by 10 racks of IBM servers running the Linux operating system. It's not connected to the Internet but has digested encyclopedias, dictionaries, books, news, movie scripts and more.
The system is the result of four years of work by IBM researchers around the globe, and although it was designed to compete on "Jeopardy!" the technology has applications well beyond the game, said John Kelly III, IBM director of research. He said the technology could help doctors sift through massive amounts of information to draw conclusions for patient care, and could aid professionals in a wide array of other fields.
"What Watson does and has demonstrated is the ability to advance the field of artificial intelligence by miles," he said.
Watson, named for IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, is reminiscent of IBM's famous Deep Blue computer, which defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. But while chess is well-defined and mathematical, "Jeopardy!" presents a more open-ended challenge involving troves of information and complexities of human language that would confound a normal computer.

Maybe this makes us uber nerds, but how cool is that!?!?!? A showdown between Jennings and Rutter would already be must-see (nerd) TV. Throw in a computer that could handily beat both of them? We are so there.

This computer will be used for entertainment, but the implications beyond that are immeasurable. Imagine the hours of research time that could be saved by having a computer do the dirty work. Maybe you would still need an expert to review important information, but a computer could find what you need more quickly than humanly possible.

We are totally on Team Watson, and Executive Editor Tricia Ambrose has said she might be on Team Brad (she hasn't confirmed this recently, so we won't hold her to that). Fellow copy editor Robin Palmer said she is rooting for Ken. Who would you like to see win?

Click here to read the complete article about the upcoming episodes.


-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl
Danielle Capriato | DCapriato@News-Herald.com