Final Jeopardy
Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything
by Stephen Baker
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Final Jeopardy
First chess, now Jeopardy! After last February’s televised rout, in which Watson the IBM computer resoundingly defeated Jeopardy! champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, many were tempted to ask what comes next. Are computers poised to surpass humans in all intellectual endeavors? Stephen Baker in Final Jeopardy examines the four-year quest to build Watson, and goes on to ponder the impact of machines that can out-think us in many ways.
Baker takes us on a captivating journey from the IBM laboratory to the podium and beyond. We meet David Ferrucci, the chief scientist of the team that developed Watson, and witness the painstaking process by which the computer was programmed to scan vast databases and comb them for relevant keywords provided by the Jeopardy! answers. What algorithms were used to let Watson weigh the best choice of question? How was it made to understand language, including puns and irony, and master a vast range of fields without being connected to the Internet? You’ll find out, and also see how the IBM team overcame more practical concerns, such as how to give Watson’s human competitors a fair chance on the buzzer, given that the computer has no hands.
But we also step back from the saga of Watson to see how a range of researchers around the world are developing the field of artificial intelligence. Even if HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey is still science fiction, the fact is that researchers are learning more about how cognition can be encoded into circuitry, enhancing their interaction with us carbon-based bipeds. What will Watson’s heirs be capable of in 20 years?
Final Jeopardy goes beyond the game-show hullabaloo to consider the longer-term implications of ever-evolving machine intelligence.
Hardcover : 240 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pub. Co. ( February 17, 2011 )
Item #: 13-390141
ISBN: 9780547483160
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 inches
Product Weight: 14.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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