Answer Me!

IBM Watson: Overprovisioned “Big Iron”? « Memesteading

IBM Watson: Overprovisioned “Big Iron”? « Memesteading.

Good blog post about Watson's success.

The New York Times seems to have hallucinated that Watson answered this question with "What is Elegance?", demonstrating that it could "parse language"

HEDGEHOG-PODGE for $2000 : “A recent bestseller by Muriel Barbery is called this ‘of the hedgehog’” [site:en.wikipedia.org bestseller Muriel Barbery "of the Hedgehog"] 1st result: THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG (right answer)

I'm pretty sure that Watson answered with the full title, and was awarded a correct answer.

Similarly, when it answered 'What is Mickey' and the answer should have been (I believe) 'What is Mickey Mouse'  or "Who is...", it also got a correct answer.  This might fly in Jeopardy, but I'm not sure it would count at TREC.

CMU Researcher Outlines How Watson Works - International Business Times

CMU Researcher Outlines How Watson Works - International Business Times.

Yesterday, Watson screwed up on the final Jeopardy! question and show its weaknesses. The answer was, "This city's largest airport is named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle." The question was, "What is Chicago?" Both Jennings and Rutter answered correctly, while Watson answered, "What is Toronto?" While there are U.S. cities named Toronto, they are not large enough to have two airports. David Ferrucci, the manager of the Watson project at IBM Research and someone Nyberg has worked with extensively, gave multiple reasons for the odd screwup. He said Watson downgrades the significance of category titles and since "what U.S. City" wasn't in the question; it probably didn't know it had to be in America. Also, Ferrucci said Watson was likely confused because there is a city named Toronto in the United States and the Toronto in Canada has an American League baseball team. Ferrucci was pleased with how much Watson bet.

Round Two Goes To Watson; Humans Have One More Chance (VIDEO) - International Business Times

Round Two Goes To Watson; Humans Have One More Chance (VIDEO) - International Business Times.

Watson, International Business Machines' super intelligent computer, which is equipped with question-answering technology, was able to overcome his opponents in the second round of the three-day event. The competition will conclude tonight as Watson and his competitors Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings will play one last entire game of Jeopardy!, and add their cumulative scores. The winner will take home $1,000,000 in cash prizes. IBM said if Watson wins it will donate the winnings to charity.

Shop-aholics Enabled by EasyAsk eCommerce Software; 72 Million Transactions Represent Billions in... -- BURLINGTON, Mass., Feb. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Shop-aholics Enabled by EasyAsk eCommerce Software; 72 Million Transactions Represent Billions in... -- BURLINGTON, Mass., Feb. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --.