# Jeopardy! Champs vs. Computer **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 14, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340 "2011-02-14T18:48:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/61 "2011-02-15T15:34:48Z")
My favorite example of “appropriate answers for the specific clue, but inappropriate for the category” was the one where an American had declined to dip the flag for King George. The answers were the city in which the event had taken place ( the correct answer), the Summer Olympics, and perhaps a year? At any rate, I couldn’t help suspecting that the wrong answers would be helpful to say Google if I wanted to know more, but they’d have been funny answers to the category. ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/62 "2011-02-15T15:38:07Z")
I thought one of the most interesting answers was about the gymnast with a missing leg. Watson’s answer was simply ‘leg’, so it’s clear that his programming had sorted out the right bits of information, but had failed to recognize that ‘leg’ was not, in and of itself, a defect. Since most Jeopardy answers are straight ahead nouns, it could be that he’s not that attuned to adjectives like ‘missing’. ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/63 "2011-02-15T15:39:15Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > Being first on the buzzer looked to make all the difference; Watson’s pending answers when he was beaten to the punch were almost always correct. This is what I was interested in - how does Watson’s buzzer work? They showed that he has a physical button to press, but how does he get the information about the timing of when he’s allowed to buzz in? Being good with the buzzer is a huge advantage, and it seems that they could make Watson essentially unbeatable on the buzzer. If he’s able to get all the easy question that the other contestants also know, then they would have to be much much better on knowledge to beat him. ---
**Author:** ![Scacarius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@Scacarius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scacarius)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/64 "2011-02-15T15:47:12Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > :smack: I mean the Current, Alex Trebek era of Jeopardy! Griffin hosted it himself in the B&W Era, correct? Art Fleming was the original Jeopardy host; none of Trebek’s condescension. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/65 "2011-02-15T15:58:34Z")
I think Watson can buzz in as soon as he gets the text with the answer. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/66 "2011-02-15T16:06:43Z")
I would presume Watson is keying off the same off-camera light the human contestants see that signal it is OK to buzz. I presume they just have a electrical circuit input into Watson for this, and Watson is not “looking” at the light with a camera, but they didn’t cover this in last night’s episode. ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/67 "2011-02-15T16:12:30Z")
> [@jacquilynne](#): > > I thought one of the most interesting answers was about the gymnast with a missing leg. Watson’s answer was simply ‘leg’, so it’s clear that his programming had sorted out the right bits of information, but had failed to recognize that ‘leg’ was not, in and of itself, a defect. Since most Jeopardy answers are straight ahead nouns, it could be that he’s not that attuned to adjectives like ‘missing’. [Interesting tidbit about that sequence](http://thenumerati.net/): > [@](#): > > Here’s one clue that tripped up Watson: > “It was the anatomical oddity of US gymnist George Eyser who won a gold medal on the parallel bars in 1904.” > > Ken Jennings won the buzz and guessed that Eyser was missing an arm. This was wrong, and Watson got the rebound. It answered, “What is leg?” Initially, as the game was taped, host Alex Trebek accepted the answer. But a judge stopped the game. After a lengthy parley, it was agreed that Watson missed the important point. Eyser’s oddity was not his leg, but that he was missing one. They retaped the segment and Watson lost $1,000. > > Ferrucci explained today that an “oddity” is a hard thing for a computer to puzzle out. What is it exactly? Well, the word is subjective from the get-go. We might find it an oddity if someone walked around my town in New Jersey carrying groceries on his head. In much of the world, this is normal. > > So Watson, lacking its own point of view, would have had to find documents indicating that not only that Eyser was missing a leg, but that this was odd. > > It came close. It concluded that leg was what distinguished Eyser. But it left it at that. Ferrucci said that Watson has been programmed to respond succinctly. Sometimes an extra detail can screw up an otherwise correct answer. If the host was not satisfied with leg, he could have asked for more details, and perhaps Watson would have added that it was missing. (This sometimes happens. For example, if Watson’s response is The St Louis Cardinals, it can expand it to "The St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Club. But I haven’t seen it refocus an answer, as it would have had to here. In any case, it never got the chance, because Trebek initially accepted “leg.” This also prevented Rutter from a chance for an easy rebound.) ETA: I recall Jennings answering “hand,” but my memory isn’t what it used to be. Also, I had no idea that they retaped portions of shows like that. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/68 "2011-02-15T16:48:43Z")
> [@Tony](#): > > Besides, I’m not impressed with Watson’s AI when it can’t even come up with a cute little anecdote to banter with Alex Trebek over in between rounds! 😃 [Synthesized robotic computer voice, that somehow still slurs 's’s into 'sh’s]“That is not what your immediate maternal ancestor verbalized to me in the most recent nocturnal phase, Alex” “Ha. Ha. Ha. Suck. It. Trebek.” [/computer voice] ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/69 "2011-02-15T16:57:07Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Watson evaluated appropriate answers for the specific clue, but inappropriate for the category. > > Like the ‘Answer’ under the category ‘Beatles People’ > > “And anytime you feel the pain, Hey” this guy "Refrain, Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders’’ > > The correct ‘question’ of course, is “Who is Jude?” and Watson got it correct, but his #2 option was ‘‘Sad Song’’ and #3 option was “Make it better”. #2 and #3 options are lyrics from the song and clearly does not into the “Beatles People” category. > [@Munch](#): > > Yeah - but neither #2 or #3 would have made the threshold for buzzing in, so it doesn’t really matter - and they probably were extremely low because he knew they didn’t fit the category. He KNEW it was “Jude” with one of the higher confidence ratings of the night. Well, what is a reasonable “Second Guess” for this question? For a human, it’s probably something like “Mean Mr. Mustard” or “Bungalow Bill” - a person from a different Beatles song (if you mis-identified the lyrics). But a computer is _never_ going to mis-identify the lyrics. It was 100% sure that those words were from Hey Jude. And once you know that, there is no second answer - there are no other “people” in the lyrics for that song. Hence “Who is Jude?” with a 98% confidence, and random useless answers for 2 and 3 (likely other high-correlation matches to those lyrics, but with a negative confidence due to category mismatch). It’s the same with the London flag-dipping question - three facts having to do with the words in the clue, sorted by appropriateness to the category. They likely found it was better to first-pass search for relevant terms and then sort by appropriateness when assigning confidence. I did find it a bit odd that on the Athens Olympic question, where the correct answer was Greece, Watson had it’s top guess as “2004 Summer Olympics” - 2004 was in the clue, and Olympics was in the category name. Does anybody remember the exact phrasing of this question? ---
**Author:** ![BMada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@BMada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMada)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/70 "2011-02-15T17:01:06Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > I did find it a bit odd that on the Athens Olympic question, where the correct answer was Greece, Watson had it’s top guess as “2004 Summer Olympics” - 2004 was in the clue, and Olympics was in the category name. Does anybody remember the exact phrasing of this question? > **[J! Archive - Show #6086, aired 2011-02-14](https://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=3575)** > > An archive of Jeopardy! clues and players for Show #6086. answers and responses to clues ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/71 "2011-02-15T17:09:21Z")
[QUOTE=Jeopardy!] In the 2004 opening ceremonies a sole member of this team opened the parade of nations; the rest of his team closed it. [/QUOTE] Very odd that Watson would do so poorly on this question, IMO. His top answer was “2004 Summer Olympics” - surely he was programmed to not answer with words in the clue itself. And it seems like (based on his other gueses) he knew the Games were in Athens. I guess there really weren’t a lot of facts to go on here - 2004 Olympics, opening ceremony, parade of nations, “his team”. I guess I’d still think the host nation would be one of the top possible answers. ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/72 "2011-02-15T17:21:13Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > I would presume Watson is keying off the same off-camera light the human contestants see that signal it is OK to buzz. I presume they just have a electrical circuit input into Watson for this, and Watson is not “looking” at the light with a camera, but they didn’t cover this in last night’s episode. Here’s a blog entry on it: > **[IBM Research: How Watson “sees,” “hears,” and “speaks” to play Jeopardy!](http://ibmresearchnews.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-watson-sees-hears-and-speaks-to.html)** It also covers the lack of video/audio questions, which is apparently an existing accommodation also offered to disabled human players. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/73 "2011-02-15T17:25:45Z")
It’s annoying that Watson answers every musical question with “what is- A Bicycle Built for 2?” ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/74 "2011-02-15T18:40:32Z")
> [@jacquilynne](#): > > I think the reason Watson doesn’t have voice recognition built in is that he needs the time that Alex spends reading the clue to do his processing. If he had to spend that time doing voice recognition instead, he wouldn’t be fast enough. And building in voice recognition would build in the expectation that he would listen to Alex as well as his fellow contestants. I doubt that the human players are actually listening to Alex either. They can read the question off the screen in a fraction of the time it takes Alex to read it. I wonder if the Jeopardy system lets you buzz in before Alex finishes reading the question. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/75 "2011-02-15T18:43:19Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > I wonder if the Jeopardy system lets you buzz in before Alex finishes reading the question. Nope. Some Jeopardy veterans will be along shortly to confirm, but you have to wait until Alex finishes reading the question before you’re allowed to buzz in. Buzzing in too early locks you out of buzzing again for a second or two. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/76 "2011-02-15T18:44:02Z")
I read you cannot buzz in before Trebek stops reading. That’s a standard Jeopardy rule. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/77 "2011-02-15T18:44:54Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > I wonder if the Jeopardy system lets you buzz in before Alex finishes reading the question. The buzzers are locked until a fraction of a second (it feels like 0.2 seconds or so) after Alex finishes speaking. If you try to ring in before that, your buzzer is locked out for a short period of time and you’re at a disadvantage. One reason Ken was so good is that his timing with the buzzer is excellent. Watson probably has an actual timing mechanism, so like I said upthread, he’s basically perfect at that. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/78 "2011-02-15T18:46:53Z")
My opinion on Watson going straight for the Double Jeopardy is this: he knows that you get the most benefit from the DD if you have a lot of money first. I would guess he was trying to hit the $800 and $1000 clues first hoping to get the DD later and just happened to hit it early by chance. Notice once the DD had been found he basically just went across the board from the top down. At that point it doesn’t matter anymore in which order you choose the clues. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/79 "2011-02-15T18:56:11Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > Notice once the DD had been found he basically just went across the board from the top down. At that point it doesn’t matter anymore in which order you choose the clues. Right. And there is potentially some benefit to a machine switching from category to category rather than top-down - they don’t have the same “momentum” or “locked into a category” feelings that a human might, so denying the human players that advantage is a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340/80 "2011-02-15T18:56:15Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > It would also be smart strategy for Watson to jump around a lot and keep his meatbag opponents off guard. There’s a lot to be said about the momentum one gets when you find a category you’re excellent at. I noticed this, too. What I did NOT notice was that Watson generally picked the lowest-valued clues on the board, with the exception of course with that jump right to the DD. Still, having the ability to jump from category to category without the human confusion factor is a big advantage. So, Watson’s advantages are 1.) Never forgetting to phrase his response in the form of a question; 2.) Always being able to ring in first when he feels confident with his response; and 3.) No category confusion. Still, he doesn’t quite seem to “get” the response that is needed each time. Regular contestants sometimes don’t, either, for example naming a book when it’s the name of the author that is needed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-champs-vs-computer/571340.md?page=5)