This week Jeopardy! has been broadcasting an encore presentation of the first-ever man vs. machine Jeopardy! competition between IBM's "Watson" computing system and the show's two greatest contestants - Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. The final episode airs tonight, September 14.
Watson, named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, is a breakthrough human achievement in the scientific field of question and answering, also known as "QA." The Jeopardy! project incorporates IBM Power 7 systems with Linux and analytics software. Rebroadcasting the competition, is enabling millions of North American viewers to again witness TV history as Watson successfully competes against two human champions in two matches played over 3 consecutive days.
"With the Jeopardy! challenge, we accomplished what was thought to be impossible - building a computer system that operates in the near limitless, ambiguous and highly contextual realm of human language and knowledge," says Dr. David Ferrucci, IBM Fellow and scientist leading the IBM Research team that created Watson. "Watching the match again reminds us of the great power and potential behind Watson to be able to make sense of the massive amounts of data around us and to solve problems in new ways."
Six months after the original competition, Watson's Deep Question Answering (QA) technology has already driven progress in new fields such as the healthcare industry. IBM is working with Nuance Communications, Inc. to explore and develop applications to help critical decision makers, such as physicians and nurses, process large volumes of health information in order to deliver quicker and more accurate patient diagnoses. Working with universities and clients, IBM is identifying many potential uses for Watson's underlying QA technology.
For more information, visit www.ibmwatson.com.