OK, I saw Day Two of the Man v. Machine Jeopardy challenge. It was baffling - I knew plenty of the answers just sitting at home shouting at my television (is there any other way to watch Jeopardy?), so I know that the two human champions had plenty of answers, too. But they just never seemed to buzz in. I am puzzled about the timing of the input of the questions to Watson and the spped at which Watson can buzz in. (Maybe those were answered on the first day, which I missed.)
That said, the Final Jeopardy question was a headscratcher. Paraphrased, it was "This city has one airport named after a WWII hero and another named afer a WWII battle".
[Here we go:
The category was US Cities, and the clue was: “Its largest airport was named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle.”]
I can probably name about six airports in America, but I knew Midway in Chicago could be a battle and O'Hare might well be a hero, so I went with Chi-town, as did both humans. And right we were! The O'Hare story is a classic bit of Americana, too:
Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry "Butch" O'Hare (March 13, 1914 – November 26, 1943) was a naval aviator of the United States Navy who on February 20, 1942 became the U.S. Navy's first flying ace and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II. Butch O'Hare's final action took place on the night of November 26, 1943, while he was leading the U.S. Navy's first-ever nighttime fighter attack launched from an aircraft carrier. During this encounter with a group of Japanese torpedo bombers, O'Hare's F6F Hellcat was shot down; his aircraft was never found. In 1945, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS O'Hare (DD-889) was named in his honor.
A few years later, O'Hare was honored when Colonel Robert R. McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, suggested a name change of Chicago's Orchard Depot Airport as tribute to Butch O'Hare. On September 19, 1949, the Chicago, Illinois airport was renamed O'Hare International Airport. The airport displays a Grumman F4F-3[1][2] museum aircraft replicating the one flown by Butch O'Hare during his Medal of Honor flight.
But that is not what gave Butch (who was from St. Louis) his Chicago connection. Here is his dad's story:
Butch's father was a lawyer who worked closely with Al Capone before turning against him and helping convict Capone of tax evasion.[3]
...In November 1939, his father was shot, most likely by Al Capone's gunmen. During Capone's tax evasion trial in 1931 and 1932, O'Hare's father provided incriminating evidence which helped finally put Capone away. There is speculation that this was done to ensure that Butch got into the Naval Academy, or to set a good example. Whatever the motivation, the elder O'Hare was shot down in his car, a week before Capone was released from incarceration.
Whoa.
Anyway, Watson went to sea on this question, answering "Toronto?????".
Here is a list of Toronto's airports - I have no idea what battle Watson may have been contemplating or WWII hero he had in mind (Pearson was a WWI vet and former Prime Minister; Billy Bishop was a WWI ace).
Toronto Pearson International Airport
Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport
Toronto/Buttonville Municipal Airport
Toronto/Markham Airport
Toronto/Downsview Airport
Oshawa Airport
Brampton Airport
Burlington Executive Aerodrome
How could the machine have been so wrong? David Ferrucci, the manager of the Watson project at IBM Research, explained on the company’s blog that several things probably confused Watson, as reported by Steve Hamm:
First, the category names on Jeopardy! are tricky. The answers often do not exactly fit the category. Watson, in his training phase, learned that categories only weakly suggest the kind of answer that is expected, and, therefore, the machine downgrades their significance. The way the language was parsed provided an advantage for the humans and a disadvantage for Watson, as well. “What US city” wasn’t in the question. If it had been, Watson would have given US cities much more weight as it searched for the answer. Adding to the confusion for Watson, there are cities named Toronto in the United States and the Toronto in Canada has an American League baseball team. It probably picked up those facts from the written material it has digested. Also, the machine didn’t find much evidence to connect either city’s airport to World War II. (Chicago was a very close second on Watson’s list of possible answers.) So this is just one of those situations that’s a snap for a reasonably knowledgeable human but a true brain teaser for the machine.
" Who are two airports that have never been in my kitchen?".
Posted by: Cliff Clavin | February 15, 2011 at 08:52 PM
When you yell at the TV TM, do you do it in the form of a question?
Posted by: Jane (get off the couch - come save the country) | February 15, 2011 at 08:53 PM
TM, you may be an even more crazy looker up of things than I am. I tip my hat to your superior sense of curiosity...
Posted by: clarice | February 15, 2011 at 09:01 PM
I found out about that detail, from this in the LUN, I'm beginning to lose confidence in Watson, after moments like this,
Posted by: narciso | February 15, 2011 at 09:10 PM
Who is televising this epic?
Posted by: Danube of Thought | February 15, 2011 at 09:20 PM
As a Cheers fan in going on 18 years of mourning, I appreciate comment number 1.
Mothers & sons for $500, Alex.
Cordially...
Posted by: Rick | February 15, 2011 at 09:24 PM
According to Nova, Watson is fed the question electronically as Alex reads it so he -- it -- gets the question at the same time as the (other) contestants.
The Nova show is well worth watching, if you get the chance. You get to see Watson grow in sophistication.
Posted by: sbw | February 15, 2011 at 09:27 PM
The story of O'Hare and his dad has been floating around the internet for several years and has been forwarded to me in a number of those open, open, open, open, for God's sake don't you know how to cut and paste, emails that one gets from relatives and friends who aren't computer literate.
Watched it last night, I think Watson gets his questions via text
as the questions are being read. That appears to me to be a huge headstart as a computer that powerful will imput that query before Alex can even finish his first word.
When Watson was wrong he was spectacularly wrong, not even close. The algorithms, no matter how ingenious and with banks of servers to crunch the facts, pretty obviously don't capture human intelligence.
Posted by: laura | February 15, 2011 at 09:35 PM
Next question from the Airports category: "This city has two airports named after two men who died in the same plane crash."
Posted by: Paul Zrimsek | February 15, 2011 at 09:57 PM
Nashville, with Richie Valens Aerodrome and Big Bopper International?
Posted by: Danube of Thought | February 15, 2011 at 10:12 PM
I was under the impression that Watson did not have the last words of the text for the question until Alex was completing the words verbally. Watson is getting text.
Posted by: sbw | February 15, 2011 at 10:23 PM
The Final Jeopardy question related to a U.S. city, which made Watson's answer a real head-scratcher.
Posted by: wm. tyroler | February 15, 2011 at 10:35 PM
I know this makes me sound really old, but I remember the very first Jeopardy broadcast. It was always exactly at noon, on Channel 4, the NBC affiliate here in New York. The announcer was NBC's Don Pardo, who later was the announcer for Saturday Night Live, and the host was Art Fleming. But for me, the really good quiz shows were "It's Academic" and "College Bowl."
Posted by: peter | February 15, 2011 at 10:39 PM
Peter: Do you remember the original "Price is Right" with Bill Cullen?
Posted by: Sara (Pal2Pal) | February 15, 2011 at 10:50 PM
Probably Oshawa sounded really Japanesey to Watson. It threw him off.
Posted by: MayBee | February 15, 2011 at 10:51 PM
I remember watching Johnny Carson host "Who Do You Trust?" in 1956. I thought College Bowl was awful.
What's the answer, PaulZ?
Posted by: Danube of Thought | February 15, 2011 at 10:59 PM
I liked College Bowl. I'd watch it I believe on early Saturday evenings. I always felt so smart if I got an answer correct. I was in high school then.
Posted by: maryrose | February 15, 2011 at 11:17 PM
I was a moderator for a high school team for It's Academic. Our team won and I received a free dictionary. We also got scholarship money for the school.
Posted by: maryrose | February 15, 2011 at 11:19 PM
Great show, "Who Do You Trust?"
According to this posting, TM is smarter than the average bear.
Posted by: MarkO | February 15, 2011 at 11:27 PM
The worst football announcer in TV history was Chris Schenkel. Worst color man was a tie between Red Grange and Bud ("that all-important time of ossession") Wilkinson. Some would vote for Al Derogatis, Curt Gowdy's partner during the old AFL days; SI once reported that "the players tend to derogate Derogatis."
Remember Elbert "Golden Wheels" Dubenion?
Must I stop now?
Posted by: Danube of Thought | February 15, 2011 at 11:40 PM
My favorite, DoT, was John Facenda, the voice of God. "Bradshaw, his nose broken and limping from Alan Page's hit in the second series of the 4th quarter, takes the snap and is blindsided by Green Bay linebacker Wally Hilginberg as he hits rookie Lynn Swann for a critical seven yard first down..."". And the seas were parted....
I was scary good at Jeopardy until they started with the lightweight Madonna, who's got what hair style questions. Ah, what could have been...me and Art Fleming woulda been contenders.
What is denial, Alex????
Posted by: matt | February 16, 2011 at 12:06 AM
It's astonishing to me that a computer can win at Jeopardy and Lady Gaga showed up to the Grammys in an egg, yet some of you people still deny global warming.
Posted by: bgates | February 16, 2011 at 12:34 AM
--Some would vote for Al Derogatis--
Poor old Al was mythically bad.
I'm not positive but i believe he had the distinction of being the only player with a head so frickin big they had to glue two helmets together to make one big enough to fit his gargantuan bean.
Posted by: Ignatz | February 16, 2011 at 12:39 AM
"What is Mexico?"
"What are the Finger Lakes?"
"What is Titicaca?"
">http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/Drama/Drama/GroundFles.asp"> "What is the Rhone?"
Posted by: daddy | February 16, 2011 at 01:07 AM
"What is tungsten or wolfram?"
"What is Mount Suvious?"
"All right, uh, let's go with Foods that start with the letter Q pleas."
Posted by: bgates | February 16, 2011 at 01:32 AM
What are:
Quesadilla
Quiche
Quail
Posted by: Sara (Pal2Pal) | February 16, 2011 at 04:52 AM
What is the the port that I am looking out at right now? Well, its Valpariso, Chile and we have arrived, awaiting our disembarkation number to be called so we can clear Aduana and Immigracion and vamos to Santiago for the day then to the airport to fly to Atlanta on to Daytona.
We are full of too many impressions to share right now but will use Frederick's voice over the next few days to answer some of your questions, post photos of gardens (for CC) and put up a photo blog somewhere for the pictures of Cape Horn, the fjords and those adorable penguins. Perhaps a video or two.
Now we need to log off and say adios.
Posted by: Jack is Back! | February 16, 2011 at 06:18 AM
I do remember Bill Cullen. Every time he came on the air, my grandmother would say something about how he had a physical deformity.
Posted by: peter | February 16, 2011 at 06:20 AM
Well I would have beaten Watson on one question anyway. Course, I started reading Midway history in spring 1967, and really haven't stopped. The O'Hare family history that's on the internet, is that legit?
Posted by: NK | February 16, 2011 at 08:24 AM
Some would vote for Al Derogatis, Curt Gowdy's partner during the old AFL days; SI once reported that "the players tend to derogate Derogatis."
At least De-Ro lasted a few seasons with Curt; he was a bit endearing in his dimwittedness. Fred "The Hammer" Williamson was so bad that after one MNF performance they gave him the bum's rush iirc.
Regarding Chris Schenkel, I could never understand why he was allowed in front of a microphone.
Posted by: Captain Hate | February 16, 2011 at 08:40 AM
And the Alternative Final Jeopardy question is... What is Oklahoma City? (Home of Will Rogers World Airport and Wiley Post Airport.)
Posted by: Paul Zrimsek | February 16, 2011 at 08:57 AM
NK,
I believe the only question is the intent and motivation of the senior O'Hare.
Posted by: laura | February 16, 2011 at 09:06 AM
a name change of Chicago's Orchard Depot Airport
Ah, that explains why O'Hare Airport's code is ORD.
Posted by: I R A Darth Aggie | February 16, 2011 at 09:14 AM
Laura--
yes I understand that certain facts are part of the public record, my question is about the Naval Academy admission and other motivations. Is that all suposition or did senior Mr. O'Hare have anything to say before he was gunned down. BTW-- Butch O'Hare's demise in action is less than clear as well.
Posted by: NK | February 16, 2011 at 09:51 AM
Titicaca.
What is W. C. Fields famous punch line?
Posted by: sbw | February 16, 2011 at 11:19 AM
--At least De-Ro lasted a few seasons with Curt; he was a bit endearing in his dimwittedness.--
He was actually a pretty likable guy but such a knucklehead, oy!
--Fred "The Hammer" Williamson was so bad--
I'll probably get hammered myself for saying this, but the most incisive color guy I ever heard was OJ, the Juice, the crazy ass murderer.
He would occasionally get a little tongue tied and always sounded like he was rolling Captain Queeg's marbles around his mouth but he consistently saw things that no one else did and was darn near always right when the replay came up.
Posted by: Ignatz | February 16, 2011 at 11:48 AM
Matt: Didn't Alan Page play for the Vikings? Must have been a tough day for Bradshaw if he had to take on the Vikes and Green Bay in the same game :-)
Posted by: Mad Jack | February 16, 2011 at 01:18 PM
"the category names on Jeopardy! are tricky. The answers often do not exactly fit the category. Watson, in his training phase, learned that categories only weakly suggest the kind of answer that is expected, and, therefore, the machine downgrades their significance."
Watson, you malfunctioning bucket of bolts... In this case, the category was an essential perimeter. An advantage us flesh-bags have over our robot overlords is we can do things like 'downgrade the significance of a category, except when we don't.'
Posted by: ~FR | February 16, 2011 at 05:42 PM
Answer - What is a boundary or path that surrounds an area.
Posted by: sbw | February 16, 2011 at 07:32 PM
Hah! Ken Jennings final jeopardy answer parenthetical comment was, "I for one welcome our new computer overlords."
Posted by: sbw | February 16, 2011 at 07:57 PM
Watson won. And Alex applauded the PEOPLE who created Watson.
Posted by: sbw | February 16, 2011 at 07:58 PM
Midway was Midway before Midway---Its name has nothing to do with the Battle of Midway.
Wikopedia has the dope.
Posted by: Will Chane | February 16, 2011 at 08:40 PM
The questions were too fact-based. You cannot beat a computer at that. If they had included categories like those where you have to join together two halves of an answer and create a new word, I suspect the computer would fail at that. I wonder if only certain categories of questions were acceptable to IBM?!
Posted by: bio mom | February 17, 2011 at 06:57 AM
I watched the match with interest. But the questions were far easier than the usual matches (I knew most of 'em), and the only real competition was who could buzz in first. Not surprisingly, the electronic entity was the most effective at sending a signal between the time the answer was finished and before the next competitor. And Watson's MO appears to be a lot like a souped-up verson of Google, choosing the response with the most hits.
Color me unimpressed.
Posted by: Cecil Turner | February 17, 2011 at 11:02 PM
Suck it, Trebek.
Posted by: Watson | February 20, 2011 at 02:28 PM