Watson vs. My Wife

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Schliemann
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Watson vs. My Wife

Post by Schliemann »

Hey y'all. The IBM train rolled into Cambridge on Monday for a match between multi-million dollar game show buzzing mechanism Watson and students from Harvard (G's team) and MIT (embarrassed). It was a lot of fun and Harvard kept it close (really one $2000 clue flips the outcome) but Watson still ended up victorious. If you listen very closely at 2:12 in the PC Advisor video you can hear me shouting "F___ You, Watson".

Some pub from the event.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/videos/33152 ... -jeopardy/

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/03/141949820 ... skill-jobs

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/20 ... ss-school/

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/ ... rcomputer/

Interesting fact: We heard that if/when Watson gets behind in a match it's buzzing mechanism tightens up so that it rings in more accurately.
Last edited by Schliemann on Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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alietr
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by alietr »

I thought this was going to be a tale of love lost.
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HugoZ
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by HugoZ »

alietr wrote:I thought this was going to be a tale of love lost.
...or a fight with a Victorian physician at the top of a waterfall.
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dhkendall
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by dhkendall »

Watson knows that it can't take Schlie head-on and survive, so it decided to play dirty and went after his love instead ...
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alietr
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by alietr »

She ain't no pushover neither!
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HugoZ
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by HugoZ »

Schliemann wrote: Interesting fact: We heard that if/when Watson gets behind in a match it's buzzing mechanism tightens up so that rings in more accurately.
Is that more accurately as in a higher certainty threshhold before ringing in, or more accurately as in ringing in with Ludicrous Speed?
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Volante
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by Volante »

HugoZ wrote:
Schliemann wrote: Interesting fact: We heard that if/when Watson gets behind in a match it's buzzing mechanism tightens up so that rings in more accurately.
Is that more accurately as in a higher certainty threshhold before ringing in, or more accurately as in ringing in with Ludicrous Speed?
I'm reminded of the rubber band tactics used by the AI vehicles in Mario Kart... A bazillion lengths ahead? *SNAP* Nope! Right behind ya!
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dhkendall
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by dhkendall »

alietr wrote:She ain't no pushover neither!
This is indeed true, in fact I wonder who would win a trivia matchup among those two. Best person to ask would be Schlie: Hey, Schlie, do you still beat your wife? ;)
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Paucle
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by Paucle »

I had to read that last line 3x. Did Schlie really do that? Ok, who's really at the KB?
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Rex Kramer
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by Rex Kramer »

1) Ha, gotta love seeing HBS wiping the floor with Sloan. :)

2) The FJ was from the 2010 Xmas Eve game. Obviously, then, they re-used aired clues. How did they avoid the problem of foreknowledge?

3) Who was the host?

Sounds like fun, and Genevieve was undoubtedly the (human) star of the show.

Rex
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dhkendall
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by dhkendall »

Rex Kramer wrote: 2) The FJ was from the 2010 Xmas Eve game. Obviously, then, they re-used aired clues. How did they avoid the problem of foreknowledge?
This may have been a way for them to handicap Watson slightly, as whole it can't be guaranteed that his opponents haven't seen those questions before, it can be guaranteed of Watson.

Or, it may not be an issue at all! Did you remember that clue perfectly from 10 months ago, Rex? Do you remember every clue from 10 months ago?
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Mark B
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by Mark B »

Schliemann wrote: Interesting fact: We heard that if/when Watson gets behind in a match it's buzzing mechanism tightens up so that rings in more accurately.
As if we needed further proof that Watson is a big fat rigged cheater.

Thanks for the post Schlie.
slam
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by slam »

The first item in Schlie's post has the following comment:

Watson would come up with 3 responses to each clue and rank its certainty on each of them. If Watson was relatively sure of the top responses accurately it would ring in and answer. If Watson was in the lead the threshold would move up so it wouldn’t answer as often, if it was trailing the threshold would move down so that it could try to regain the lead.

If that's what Watson does, I feel it's perfectly legitimate strategy. To use football analogies, if Watson is in the lead, it goes into a "prevent defense" by trying to reduce its negs. If it's behind, it starts to throw "Hail Mary" passes. A human can adapt those stragies also, but probably not with the mathematical precision that Watson does.

If, on the other hand, Watson starts buzzing in at the 5 millisecond mark rather than the 10 millisecond mark to try and catch up, that seems like it's enhancing its already unfair timing advantage. Most people around here seem to agree that Watson's victory over Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings was primarily due to the timing advantage rather than knowledge advantage (though Watson probably has been improving since then). My sense is that one of the humans would have won if Watson had been programmed to simulate the buzzing skills of a human.
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Rex Kramer
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by Rex Kramer »

dhkendall wrote:Or, it may not be an issue at all! Did you remember that clue perfectly from 10 months ago, Rex? Do you remember every clue from 10 months ago?
Ha! I wish. But this FJ in particular was pretty distinctive, so I recognized it.

Rex
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alietr
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by alietr »

Well, that plus we've had drinks with the winner of that game (and who has been of help in getting the board better-noticed).
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Schliemann
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by Schliemann »

Rex Kramer wrote: 3) Who was the host?

Sounds like fun, and Genevieve was undoubtedly the (human) star of the show.

Rex
The host was some actor/comedian guy from NYC. He had hosted these Watson vs. College teams exhibition matches before. He did well to keep the game moving, etc.

Haha, and yes, Genevieve was no doubt the star. :)
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jpahk
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by jpahk »

it was the FJ that KOed tom nissley after his 8-day run, so i noticed it right away too. it is the only FJ tom has missed in 10 episodes to date (counting last night), which is pretty incredible.
Schliemann wrote:The host was some actor/comedian guy from NYC. He had hosted these Watson vs. College teams exhibition matches before. He did well to keep the game moving, etc.
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heelsrule1988
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by heelsrule1988 »

I would pay good money to see Watson vs. Schliemann. No third player... just the two of them. I can see it now: the game would end in a tie, Watson would blow up, Schliemann would rise to the heavens engulfed in flames while shouting, "THE POWER IS MINE, ALL MINE!!!"... and the world would come to an end.
seaborgium
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by seaborgium »

heelsrule1988 wrote:I would pay good money to see Watson vs. Schliemann. No third player... just the two of them.
They have Watson play with two sentient opponents for the same reason they have Watson play using impeccable buzzer timing.
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dhkendall
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Re: Watson vs. My Wife

Post by dhkendall »

heelsrule1988 wrote:I would pay good money to see Watson vs. Schliemann. No third player... just the two of them.
I still have not seen one shred of conclusive proof they are not the same.
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