«Watson on Jeopardy!»

The computer overlords are near. Perhaps December 21st, 2012 will be Judgment Day¹.

IBM Watson: Final Jeopardy! and the Future of Watson


Just like the other contestants, Watson did not have internet access. Watson even had to physically push the buzzer button like everyone else. It had the entirety of Wikipedia and 12 encyclopedias, as well as a movie database on its hard drives. But that's no different than the people memorizing stuff.

Are we really this close to a true AI? I don't think a computer AI will be hostile like the movies portray it as. Watson is an experiment in the understanding of language. As evidenced by its answer that George Eyser's leg was the oddity, not his missing leg, it does have a bit left to learn.

When computers can take the available information and use it to come up with new ideas, then I'll be impressed.

^1: In a classic Terminator movie style.