Computer Jeopary!

In case you haven't heard already, an IBM computer will be competing on the game show Jeopary! next week. The computer, named Watson, will compete against past-champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

If Watson is successful, and I'm betting he... uh it, will be, on which other game shows will it appear? Imagine Watson, as grandprize winner on Wheel of Fortune, on a seven-day cruise basking his silcon-self in a deck chair sipping milliamps through a bendy fiber-optic straw by day and flexing his teraflops at the ship's gyro stabilizers in the moonlight.

Or maybe Family Feud. A row of desktop PCs in support blinking in anticipation of one Good Answer after another while their pitiful human opponents can't even hit the buzzer fast enough to compete. But, Family Feud might not be much challenge for massive parallel POWER7 processors and the IBM DeepQA software. A 1970's z80-based TRS-80 could probably do quite well on the Feud.

I doubt that Watson could dominate all TV game shows, though. As a matter of act, I'll take on Watson if I can choose the game. Supermarket Sweep.



Jeopardy! airs daily on ABC at 6 p.m.

The Superbowl Ad

I'm going out a limb (thin, frozen type) here and identifying my favorite Superbowl XLV ad now.

Watch for the ad from Volkswagen.

May the Force be with you.