Supercomputer beats TV quiz champions

Two champion contestants on a popular American quiz show have been easily beaten by a
computer. The IBM machine, named Watson, won in three special editions of Jeopardy. One
of the men it defeated holds the Jeopardy record of 74 straight wins. Tom Burridge reports.
Jeopardy is one of America’s oldest and most popular quiz shows. But this time, inside the
brightly-lit studio, a contest billed as ‘man versus machine’ – the programme’s producers
pitted two of their most successful contestants ever against a computer. Known as Watson,
the computer is a giant piece of hardware, equivalent in size to several fridges. And over three
programmes, Watson beat his human contenders with ease.
In a split-second, Watson is able to digest the question and try and match it against huge
amounts of information it has at its disposal. It very quickly assesses how good a match it
thinks it has and buzzes either very quickly, or not so quickly, reflecting how confident it is
that it has the right answer.
Watson is also able to notice nuances in language, between say ‘bat’ the animal and ‘bat’ used
in sports. On a prime-time US TV show with millions of viewers it was great publicity for
IBM. But the company says Watson the computer is an IT genius and a breakthrough in
computing.
Tom Burridge, BBC News

Vocabulary and definitions

billed as	publicised or highlighted as
pitted… against	matched with or set up to compete against
human contenders	human opponents or opposition
to digest	to understand and organise
at its disposal	available to use
how good a match	how effective a comparison or answer
buzzes	makes a noise to indicate it has an answer to a question
nuances in language	slight differences in what certain words or phrases mean
an IT genius	something (or someone) highly skilled with gadgets and technology
a breakthrough	a new discovery or something that is groundbreaking

More on this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12491688
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