UW News

February 9, 2011

Its artificial versus human intelligence on ‘Jeopardy

UW News

In 1997, an IBM artificial intelligence system named Deep Blue defeated the human world champion in a chess match.

The game of Jeopardy! — which requires 3-second responses and the understanding of English questions, puns, and a massive knowledge base of facts — is a much harder challenge.  On February 14, 15, and 16, an IBM AI system named Watson will be pitted against two human champions.

The UW Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) Department will host a viewing event on the second of these nights, Tuesday Feb. 15.  The event will take place from 7 to 8:15 p.m. in EE105.  Professors from CSE and experts from IBM and Microsoft will be on hand to provide commentary.

The department invites the campus community to watch, noting, “Win, lose, or draw, this is a monumental step for computer science.”