Watson Proves Computers Are Smarter than Men. Really?
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
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This is the new photo for the new decade. IBM wins. Watson is the new genius among us. We are in big trouble.
Watson handily and almost embarrassedly won the two-day Jeopardy game against the brightest Jeopardy players, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.
Answer: What dialect in the 19th century was discovered by a nun in the Roman Catholic church seeking refuge? These are the kinds of questions that not only do we not know the answer to, but wonder why anyone would know the answer. By the time Jennings pushed the remote control button, Watson was already giving the question. To be polite, IBM configured Watson to miss at least two questions. Does that make Watson human?
More importantly, Watson didn’t compete against women. More on that later.
What intrigues me about this is that men designed Watson and made the machine smarter than them. Way smarter. But this is nothing new. Computers have been smarter for some time. What is new is that Watson can “think”, “talk” and even “see.”
In the famous book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, the author points out the huge differences in thinking between men and women. Heck, the author concludes how the two species can even be compatible. It has taken scientists, psychologists and other experts centuries to figure this out and they are no closer. Now we have the likes of Watson to contend with. If a man is a “he” and a woman is a “she”, what is a computer such as Watson, a “gee?”
When it comes to computers, all I really want is one that will allow me to email, search the Internet, print, copy, forward and save. I certainly don’t one that will talk to me, think for me or see me. How many times do you want to put your fist through a computer screen or toss your mouse through a window? Can you imagine if your computer could sense your frustration? Most likely it would self-destruct. Or cause severe electrical shock. Or perhaps even worse, scream at you.
I used Explorer until I learned about Chrome. I tried Windows 7 but it hated Chrome. Now I am back to Vista and Chrome. But Chrome won’t let me print. Vista won’t let me put two applications on one screen. Microsoft and Google are from Jupiter.
We learn to adopt. Nothing is perfect. It’s a good thing I have a team of 6 IT professionals to help me out. In the meantime, Watson is scary. His “face” is scary. But put Watson up against a woman, and I think Watson would be in trouble. Gee vs. She. I’m sure IBM researchers are busy at work on this one.
Happy Thursday!
