Watson beating the snot out of Mortals

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2224735

by jprobert • 15 years ago

2 1 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

When the first practice rounds of Jeopardy began it was very close between the humans and Watson, now it's a total blowout. It's amazing how quickly the computer has advanced since the initial trials. We'll see what happens tomorrow but it looks like computers might be taking over sooner than later. What do you think?

mechanical_fish• 15 years ago

Taking over what? The playing of trivia games?

Imagine the terrible effects on the economy when tens of thousands of professional trivia players are thrown out of work.

Although, come to think of it, I don't think the rise of computers to the top ranks of chess hurt the chess community at all. Humans just play the game between themselves and ignore the computers, just as we ignore the speed of racing cars when we run Olympic races and ignore the superior mobility of eagles when flying kites.

The future of trivia is not particularly imperiled by Watson. It's imperiled by the fact that we're all starting to carry Wikipedia and Google around 24/7, and therefore the ability to memorize and recall trivial knowledge has about as much relevance to our futures as the ability to turn raw cotton into clothing. It's likely to become a quaint hobby that young people can't understand the point of.

Watson beating the snot out of Mortals

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