It is the natural language interpretation that is astonishing. Not the fact recall.
The sprinter rand down the track.
The pen ran out of ink.
The stream ran to the river.
The nose ran all day.
English speaking humans easily understand all those. But to program a machine to understand this sort of thing with minimal context is radically difficult. It is why the Turing Test is so often referenced - to get interactions that make sense and appear natural is tough. Watson is another stepping stone on this path.
And this type of research has been going on for years and years and IBM are not alone. Jeopardy is simply a target to allow the team to focus their research and a way to measure their progress.
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"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
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