Watson Day 3: The Conclusion....

Good day everyone! What an a amazing thing we watched happen last night, am I right?! Watson was victorious over the humans for both games of Jeopardy! This surprised some, and didn't surprise others. I, for one, was quite impressed that the computer was able to "understand" the question and respond faster (on most questions) than Ken and Brad. Just to put things into perspective, last night we were told that when the Watson project was just being put together, it would take the early Watson 2 hours to answer a single question, the product you saw last night was capable of answering a question within three seconds.

It's pretty amazing all of the work that went into the project. I'm just going to briefly touch on some of the questions asked last night.

Why did Watson answer "Toronto" in Final Jeopardy! on day 2, when the category was "U.S. Cities", and the question was "This city's largest airport is named for a famous World War II hero, its second largest for a famous World War II battle."?

This question was a challenge for Watson because during the rest of the game play Watson was "told" the category so he was more able to have an idea of what it was he was looking for before answering. However, when it came to Final Jeopardy! Watson was not given the category clue (U.S. cities). It was a multi-faceted question, which made it hard for Watson to understand. I was actually very impressed when Watson was able to come up with the correct answer to last nights Final Jeopardy! question as well. It seemed like the questions were purposely written in a way that would trip up a computer.

When Watson wagered, why were his wagers such a weird number?

This one was simple to answer. To the computer, a number is a number. The computer doesn't see any benefit to betting a round number like a person would, so generally Watson would just bet a number that would ensure that he stayed ahead of the other contestants without falling behind. There was no "strategy" about it. It was simply doing what it needed to to stay ahead.

This technology is going to do absolutely amazing things in the future. the applications in the medical field alone will help diagnose problems and save lives. IBM assured us that the computers would not be taking over the world, but rather helping make our world a better place.

In closing, I would like to share with you my favorite moment in Jeopardy! history. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ken Jennings final answer.

Watson Day 2: More of the Same...

So last night, the Watson lecture was more of the same from the first night. The crowd was split 50/50 as to whom attended the first night lecture, and who didn't, so the panel felt it necessary to reiterate a lot of what they had said on Monday. Since I decided to blow my nerd load and write the longest post in Carly on Comics history yesterday, I'll take it easy on you today. Today, like when I went to NYCC, we will be discussing lecture etiquette. I will be posting some of The Editors notes near the end, just in case he felt there was anything significant that was spoken about last night that I missed. There will be another long post tomorrow, wrapping up the lecture series. On with the politeness!

Let's just face it. Everyone likes you better when you're nice, right? When you have learned and utilize basic social skills, you don't look like a total a-hole when you go out in public. At the age of 27, I have now come to realize that a lot of people are missing this filter, and just say and do whatever they want, even if it's being a complete jerk to the people around you. For those of you who can actually CONTROL yourselves in public, kudos, keep it up! Below are a few tips for those of you who go the other way.


1) If you're sick, stay at home. - Last night I was sitting to one of the most irritating families on the planet. Mom, who sat next to me, was hack-coughing like she was going to choke and die any moment. Did she excuse herself and go get some water and take care of the situation? Nope. She proceeded to hack and cough her mucous and germs all over me. I hate being sick. I mean, I REALLY hate it. I had mono for 7 weeks last summer, and it sucked. The weather is just starting to get nice, and I really, REALLY don't want to be laid up because some stupid soccer mom in her stupid Uggs thinks she's a good mom by infecting a room full of people with her grossness. People like her are the reason the zombie apocalypse would spread like wildfire.

Only you can prevent an undead outbreak.

2) Treat the lecture as if you were at a movie. - Nay, on second though, treat it more as if you're going to a Broadway show. The panelists are people too, and they are giving up three evenings of their lives, three evenings of being away from their spouses and kids, to talk to a bunch of people who DIDN'T HAVE TO PAY TO BE THERE about something they've been talking about for months. The least you could do is put your cell phone away. And god help you if you pick up a phone call in the middle of the lecture. You will get a death stare from me that says "This is your warning. Do it again, and that phone is going where the sun don't shine". Of course, I understand if the house if on fire, if your kid forgot to take hid Ritalin and now he's holding the babysitter hostage, etc., there are exceptions to every rule. However, do NOT pick up your phone to tell someone you can't talk because you're at a lecture. That should be automatic execution.

Put it on airplane mode, jerk-ass

3) If the floor is open for questions, don't ask stupid questions.- Ah yes, the ol' comic con wonder... For some reason, whenever a large group of nerds is in a room together, listening to a panel discussion, as soon as the panel is open for questions, there are at LEAST 8 nerds who want to ask questions. Most of them are dumb questions which have already been answered once or twice. The best way to avoid this is to ask your friends if they know the answer to your dumb question first. Chances are, they do. Also, if your friends tell you your question is stupid, don't play the hero and go ask it anyway. It just makes you look like an idiot.

4) Don't bring a child under 15 to a lecture at a college. - The past two nights there were an amazing amount of parents who thought it appropriate to bring their kid(s) to the lecture. Bad idea. As previously stated, I am a 27 year old nerd, and I don't quite understand everything that is being said. I'm 27 and there are points when I get antsy in my seat. That being said, unless your kid has taken a bunch of Ritalin or Benedryl, he or she WILL become restless. Restless = irritated, irritated = whiny. Please do not bring your child to a lecture to whine. Also, do not ignore your kid when they become whiny, because the rest of us cannot ignore your kid as well as you can, and it doesn't make us irritated, it makes us pissed. Either remove the whining child, or take them to a more kid-friendly environment to begin with, like Chuck E' Cheese.

When your kid looks like this, it's already too late.

5) Respect the arm rest- Arm rests do not exist in a chair solely for comfort. Arm rests serve as a barrier. Please keep this in mind at all times. One of the most uncomfortable things in the world to me is being touched (or coughed on) by someone I don't know. Please PLEASE respect that, and when you take off your coat, at least TRY not to smack me in the face with it. If hitting me in the face with your jacket is unavoidable, please, for the love of god, apologize. Also, in addition to you not spilling over into my seat with your personal belongings, respect the fact I don't like strangers touching me, and try to keep yourself from spilling over into my seat.

Keep yourself to yourself.

It's really all about respect and common courtesy. Not just for the presenters who are graciously giving their time to educate you, but also to the people who are your audience-mates. Together, we can make the nerd community a nicer place.

Watson Day 1: It's Not Elementary, My Dear Watson...

 Hello hello! The Editor and I are pretty fresh off our trip to the EMPAC center at RPI, and the super awesome lecture about the Watson super computer from IBM. It was pretty much the most awesome lecture I've ever sat in on. We showed up about 6:15 or so, grabbed some free food and drinks (most awesome part about a lecture on a college campus), and were in our seats for the lecture at 6:45. The lecture consisted of three panel members; Dr. Chris Welty (who is completely and totally smart, well spoken, and funny), Dr. Jim Hendler and Dr. James Meyers. The Editor referred to these guys as "the Mystery Science 3,000 of Computers".

Chris Welty is an RPI grad, and fun fact! It took him 14 years to graduate from RPI. He still has the longest standing record for most semesters attended. Dr. Welty did the bulk of the talking, and had an amazing PowerPoint presentation the he showed, that explained Watson in a way that a non-genius (like myself) could understand. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the presentation anywhere online. :-(

Below is a short video giving a very basic overview of what Watson is and how it works. I'll have The Editor write up a longer, more detailed explanation later in the week about the lectures and Watson, as he has a MUCH better grasp on the whole thing than I do. I will be giving you the dumbed down explanation.




Watson is basically a server system storing tons and tons of information. Watson is given a question and because of all the servers, can come up with an answer pretty quickly. If you watched last night, the screen showed three possible answers that Watson came up with, and whichever one had the highest percentage correct, he rang in for the answer. One thing we learned last night is that Watson will NOT buzz in unless there is a greater that 80% probability that the answer is correct.

As you witnessed last night, Watson is not perfect. Sometimes the computer does not understand the question the way a human brain would, and gives a wrong answer. Also, since Watson is incapable of hearing, or seeing, he buzzed in with the same answer that Ken Jennings incorrectly answered right before he did.

Watson's "avatar" was pretty cool too. The blue and green "wires" become more active when Watson is "thinking", and they settle to the bottom and turn red if he gets an incorrect answer. It's pretty amazing.

With the technology that IBM has created with Watson, there are a ton of other projects that they are working on, to make lives easier. Most notable is the writing of a medical program which doctors can use to better diagnose patients. Basically, the doctor would input the symptoms, and match them up against other documents and studies from other doctors, colleges, medical journals, etc. around the world to get an answer SPECIFIC to the question they asked.

"Why couldn't they just use Google?" you may ask. Google is a great search engine if you want a broad answer on a simple question. However, the more complex the question becomes, the less information Google can give you. Generally speaking, it will only give you the most popular answers, and that may not be EXACTLY what you're looking for.

Unlike traditional search engines, Watson is capable of "thinking" more logically, so it can better understand what it is specifically that you are looking for. However, as previously stated, Watson is not yet perfect, and you wouldn't want an imperfect computer diagnosing you with a life threatening illness, if you don't have one.

I'm not even a huge tech dork, and I find Watson absolutely fascinating. The Editor (who is a computer engineer) referred to the Watson project as "inspiring". The AI that Watson uses can truly help to make the world a better place, once it is fine-tuned, and ready for everyday applications. Let's just hope it doesn't become self-aware. ;-)

I'll be back with more info tomorrow! I expect that you are all watching Watson this week, and if you're not, you should absolutely look up the episodes and give them a look!

For more information on Dr Chris Welty click HERE
For more information about the Watson project click HERE


BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!

Here are The Editor's notes on Watson day one:

Watson Day 1 Notes

    Watson does not hear or see
        As such, there are no video or audio answers. Jeopardy! eliminates these when
        there is a blind or deaf contestant, so no problem here
    Watson is actually "fed" a text file with the clue once Alex begins reading
        (This miffs me a bit, they couldn't add a camera with OCR to read the clue?)
    Watson is not connected to the internet
        Since game shows are federally regulated now (and have been since that big scandal in the 50's)
        there were two auditors at the taping, ensuring all the rules were followed.
        The team couldn't have laptops, internet connections, etc.
        (I did note that Alex specifically says that the game is an 'exhibition' a few times though)

One of the best reasons to attend the screening at EMPAC are the commercial breaks (though free chicken tenders is a close second). During the breaks the commercials get muted and the panelists make comments and observations, like a less-funny more-geeky MST3000!
  
You'll notice during day one that for a "Decade" category question, Ken buzzed in and incorrectly answersed "the 20's". Watson then buzzed in and answered "The 1920's", which prompted Jennings to turn and stare in disbelief. At the next commercial break, Chris explained that they had pondered the scenario where a contestant answers incorrectly, Watson should remove that from its possible answers. They didn't implement this since their statistical analysis showed it was very very unlikely to occur, Oops! ;-)
Stay tuned for more coverage and notes from Day 2!
   

Happy Valentines Day!

Hello everyone! Happy Valentines Day! Although, to me, it's more like "Happy going-to-listen-to-a-lecture-about-Watson-on-Jeopardy! Day. I'll be bringing my little steno notepad to the EMPAC center this evening and listening to a couple of panels on "Watson" by IBM. After the panel, I'll be watching Jeopardy! on a big assed screen. *Swoon* I love Alex Trebek in 1080p... Watson is an artificial intelligence computer engineered to understand logic. Watson takes on Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter starting tonight at 7:30 for the next three days. I will sooooo be watching that.

In the spirit of Valentines day, I thought I'd share something with you. Yesterday, as The Editor and I were watching The Soup, they showed a clip of the William Shatner talk show called Shatner's Raw Nerve. Basically, the Shat is his normal crazy self, just interviewing other celebrities. However, as I was watching, his couch reminded me of something.... Let's see if you can pick up on it.

If you said "LOVE TOILET FROM SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE!!!", congratulations. You win! In the spirit of Valentines day, I would just like to remind you all to share everything with the one you love. xoxo