Watson doesn't just buzz in for every question. He actually "thinks" about the answer and comes up with a probability of how correct he is. If he thinks he is 70% correct, he will buzz in. This takes 2.6 seconds running 3,000 CPU's.
If the threshold isn't high enough, for instance, he is only 40% sure of the correct answer, he will not buzz in.
He isn't just an encyclopedia where he can easily look up the answers to questions. Jeopardy is worded funny and the computer has to know how to combine an enitire sentence into a question and deduce what is the correct answer. It is far far far more complex than him just looking up the answer to a simple question.
This video explains a lot about Watson and how he works:
Oh and my prediction: Watson will win.
Last edited by worth; 02-07-2011 at 07:05 AM.
|