The IBM supercomputer "Watson" just handily trounced its human opponents on Jeopardy, showcasing just how far computer intelligence has come. I like the modest nature of the following header from IBM's Watson website, but you just know the Watson engineers just have to be feeling proud. I think this also shows that that old clunker IBM still may have some life left in her yet.
"Humans Win!
The challenge is over. Watson, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter concluded their final round of Jeopardy! and the winner was… resoundingly, humankind. Watson’s advances in deep analytics and its ability to process unstructured data and interpret natural language will now be applied to humanity’s most vexing problems. If we can teach a computer to compete on Jeopardy! what could it mean for science, finance, healthcare and the future of society?"
Watson is based on what IBM calls the "POWER7" system and says it is "tuned for very rapid deep analytics of massively parallel problems."
Just like the human brain.
And while Watson is still a good bit larger than a typical brain, how long do you think it will take to get it down to the size of a single chip.
My guess is: not very long. Gosh, I hope I'm retired by then.
No comments:
Post a Comment