I have always liked "Jeopardy!" -- even the old original day-time show hosted by Art Fleming ("Thank you, Don Pardo!") when the dollar values in the first round ranged from $10 to $50 (compared with $200 to $1000 today). I watch it often.
But now they've gone too far. They are asking me to witness two formidable former champions get the living crap beat out of them by an IBM computer named Watson.
It is impressive that the computer can parse the clues and come up with a correct response (I'd say 95% of the time), but the reason it is winning is that it can do it in nanoseconds. He rings in before the humans can even send the message to their thumbs to press the button.
When Watson gets it wrong, however, it misses big. "Final Jeopardy" was not the computer's finest hour. The category was American Cities, and the clue was:
"Its largest airport is named for a WWII hero. Its second largest for a WWII battle."
Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter and I knew the answer is Chicago -- O'Hare is named for pilot Butch O'Hare, Midway is named after the Pacific battle. Watson's answer: Toronto.
Hello? The category is American cities.
OK, yes, there are four American towns named Toronto -- in Ohio, Iowa, South Dakota, and Kansas. I'd be surprised if any of those places has even one commercial airport, much less two.
The players get 30 seconds for Final Jeopardy. Maybe they should program Watson not to think too hard or too long.
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