I've got a bet for you...

[JonPorobil]

Spun-off from the thread in Monkey Business about IBM's Watson computer going on Jeopardy next week.

I'm betting that Watson will not win. My money is on Ken Jennings. I'd be surprised if there weren't someone here who disagreed with me.

Here's the deal: Bet me. Name your terms (must be music related). Possible terms might be...

The loser must cover one of the winner's songs.
The loser must cover a song of the winner's choice.
The loser must write and record a song praising the winner (a la the THEME SONG fight from waaaay back in 2004).
The loser must write and record a song about a topic of the winner's choosing.

Who's feeling singular?

[jast]

I would be highly surprised if you turned out to be wrong.
(I'm not accepting or offering any bets.)

[bambamoozle]

Spun-off from the thread in Monkey Business about IBM's Watson computer going on Jeopardy next week.

I'm betting that Watson will not win. My money is on Ken Jennings. I'd be surprised if there weren't someone here who disagreed with me.

Here's the deal: Bet me. Name your terms (must be music related). Possible terms might be...

The loser must cover one of the winner's songs.
The loser must cover a song of the winner's choice.
The loser must write and record a song praising the winner (a la the THEME SONG fight from waaaay back in 2004).
The loser must write and record a song about a topic of the winner's choosing.

Who's feeling singular?

Jon - I'll take you on. Ken Jennings is amazing, but my guess is that IBM wouldn't be putting up the computer unless they were pretty sure that it was ready to win.

I'm open to any of your proposed terms, but I'm especially fond of the first one. I've never heard anyone cover one of my songs, and you've got so many good ones that no matter what happens I'm a winner.

You pick.

John K.

[JonPorobil]

Spun-off from the thread in Monkey Business about IBM's Watson computer going on Jeopardy next week.

I'm betting that Watson will not win. My money is on Ken Jennings. I'd be surprised if there weren't someone here who disagreed with me.

Here's the deal: Bet me. Name your terms (must be music related). Possible terms might be...

The loser must cover one of the winner's songs.
The loser must cover a song of the winner's choice.
The loser must write and record a song praising the winner (a la the THEME SONG fight from waaaay back in 2004).
The loser must write and record a song about a topic of the winner's choosing.

Who's feeling singular?

Jon - I'll take you on. Ken Jennings is amazing, but my guess is that IBM wouldn't be putting up the computer unless they were pretty sure that it was ready to win.

I'm open to any of your proposed terms, but I'm especially fond of the first one. I've never heard anyone cover one of my songs, and you've got so many good ones that no matter what happens I'm a winner.

You pick.

John K.

Alright, it's on! The loser covers one of the winner's songs.


Point of order: The event is spread over three days, so for the purposes of this bet, the winner is the player with the highest dollar total at the end of three days. Sound fair?

And I guess if Brad wins, we call it a draw? I'm pretty sure he's got the longest odds...

[bambamoozle]

Alright, it's on! The loser covers one of the winner's songs.

Point of order: The event is spread over three days, so for the purposes of this bet, the winner is the player with the highest dollar total at the end of three days. Sound fair?

And I guess if Brad wins, we call it a draw? I'm pretty sure he's got the longest odds...

Works for me! May the best man/computer win!

[JonPorobil]

Alright, the first of three episodes will air tomorrow. I'll be at work, but my DVR is set!

[bambamoozle]

Alright, the first of three episodes will air tomorrow. I'll be at work, but my DVR is set!

I'll be watching live on tape (or whatever they call it now, kind of like a jumbo shrimp, no?)!

[bambamoozle]

Welp, day one ended with a bit of a surprise with Ken in last place. But that was just the first round, still lots to go.

[JonPorobil]

Have to admit, I'm a little surprised. I seem to have underestimated Watson, but more importantly, I've underestimated Brad.

We've still got one more first round, two more Double Jeopardies, and two more Final Jeopardies to go, though, so it's very much anyone's game.

[BBABM]

I'd start picking a song Jon

[JonPorobil]

Yeah, I know.

[BBABM]

If it's any consolation I was rooting for humanity as well... Oh well, we will now become obsolete.

[Billy's Little Trip]

As we smile and chuckle at the funny computer, skynet is building an army.

[bambamoozle]

I'd start picking a song Jon

I think it's far too early for Jon to assume that I'll be the winner of our bet. We haven't even gotten to Double Jeopardy.

[bambamoozle]

OMGasp! It looks like Watson and I have quite the lead after day 2!

Now watch, they messed up Watson's programming. He'll be ahead by a couple hundred thousand bucks or something and then wager it all on the final question! It would just my luck!

[JonPorobil]

I am both disappointed at my impending loss and terrified for the future.

[Caravan Ray]

So - what is this all about? Is there a computer vs man scenario on Jeopardy?


When Jeopardy was on telly here many years ago it was a trivia/general knowledge quiz thing. But from Niveous' thread - it now seems to be more a word game type thing. Seems like a strange thing for a computer to be good at.

All I remember of it was when they tried to put it on here, every time someone answered a question, the host Tony Barber would have to say "No...you have to say "What is......"" - and the contestant would tell Tony to fuck off. This went on for about a week - then poor old Tony had to give up on the whole "What is...." crap altogether, and the contestants just answered the questions from then on.

[HeuristicsInc]

Yes, there is a computer playing Jeopardy against two champions.
Basically "can this search engine answer the question faster than two dudes."
I hear the computer gave an answer that was already proven false... it has no word recognition. Kinda cheaty. It should have to adhere to the same rules as a human.
The regular show has more trivia than wordplay, but some are wordplay.
I guess Alex has more cachet than Tony.
-bill

[BBABM]

It's not really just a search engine. They are trying to teach a computer the English language. The point of jeopardyAnswers is that they are convoluted, and almost always puns, play-on-words, or some sort of theme... The Question that the player must give is not always the first answer on a google search. Watson is actually a room sized computer that you do not see on tv. They actually moved jeopardy to IBM headquarters. Pretty cool, but they also didn't really tell anybody about the years and years of testing and programing that went into Watson. The hardest thing was apparently programing him to wager like a human... They couldn't get him to bet more than 50cents on a double jeopardy, or daily double. I think there is a ways to go before it is "human"... But it is both amazing, and terrifying.

[HeuristicsInc]

No, I mean I have heard that it is receiving text messages to parse instead of using visual or audio recognition techniques. I have done some natural language processing work so I know how difficult it is, but still... it is not on the same footing as a human player. Wagering, that's a different thing, yeah!
-bill

[Caravan Ray]

Checker Charlie couldn't beat Finnerty in Player Piano. But you have to be careful of computers. Give them a chance and they will lock you out of your spaceship. Just ask Dave.

[Niveous]

When Jeopardy was on telly here many years ago it was a trivia/general knowledge quiz thing. But from Niveous' thread - it now seems to be more a word game type thing. Seems like a strange thing for a computer to be good at.

The Niveous version is slanted a little more to wordplay since everything is Songfight related. Regular jeopardy isn't, which gives the computer a little more of an advantage. It seems to struggle with the wordplay.