IBM’s Watson supercomputer became famous when it beat the top “Jeopardy” champions on TV. What folks didn’t know is that Watson did that with significant handicaps that wouldn’t be applied were the same system actually deployed to answer real questions. What Watson is particularly good at is providing the right answers to questions, which apparently, humans (at least, individually) are really bad at. As you watch the U.S. Congress circle the drain, you’d have to think that Watson would make stupid politicians stick out and make it far harder for either side to sustain stupid partisan positions.
There's at least one error in the story (maybe Watson would have caught this). Congress did NOT work through Christmas. I'm not sure where this idea came from. They may have not have taken an extended recess like today's Congress, but they always took off Christmas day and usually Christmas eve.
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IBM's Watson: Why Politicians Will Hate It but We May Love It
Posted by: Rob Enderle December 12, 2011 05:00 AMIBM’s Watson supercomputer became famous when it beat the top “Jeopardy” champions on TV. What folks didn’t know is that Watson did that with significant handicaps that wouldn’t be applied were the same system actually deployed to answer real questions. What Watson is particularly good at is providing the right answers to questions, which apparently, humans (at least, individually) are really bad at. As you watch the U.S. Congress circle the drain, you’d have to think that Watson would make stupid politicians stick out and make it far harder for either side to sustain stupid partisan positions.