Final Jeopardy
Subtitle: man vs. machine and the quest to know everything
By: Stephen Baker
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 268
ISBN-13: 9780547483160
Subjects: Television; Database management; Semantic computing; Artificial Intelligence; Computers; Jeopardy! (Television program); Watson (Computer); Natural Language Processing; Natural language processing (Computer science); Artificial intelligence
Description: Researchers at IBM launched a billion-dollar project to develop a machine that could compete in the quiz show Jeopardy--and win. The machine faced off in a high-ratings match against two former champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Journalist Stephen Baker carries readers on a captivating journey from the IBM labs to the showdown in Hollywood. The story features brilliant Ph.D.s, Hollywood moguls, knowledge-obsessed Jeopardy masters--and a very special collection of silicon and circuitry named Watson. It was a classic match of Man vs. Machine, not seen since the chess-playing computer Deep Blue bested the world's reigning grandmaster, Garry Kasparov. And Watson needed to do more than churn through chess moves or find a relevant Web page--it had to understand language, including puns and irony, and master everything from history and literature to science, arts, and entertainment.--Adapted from publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-268).
Table of contents: title: The germ of the Jeopardy machine; title: And representing the humans; title: Blue J is born; title: Educating Blue J; title: Watson's face; title: Watson takes on humans; title: AI; title: A season of jitters; title: Watson looks for work; title: How to play the game; title: The match.