Post by MarioGS on Feb 14, 2011 17:16:32 GMT -5
We all know about the IBM supercomputer Watson appearing on Jeopardy! tonight...
*Fun facts: I live in the town where they filmed the special episodes. Since it is a much smaller venue, the entire set was replicated, and IBM was very humble about the taping, so audience members were privately invited to the event by IBM, and I didn't even know that they were taping it here until it was a few hours too late.
...Anyway, do you think it would be interesting to see Watson on Wheel? Harry Friedman was asked if it would ever happen, and he said that Watson would need a robotic arm to spin the wheel. I'm sure IBM could pull it off. Watson would know all the game strategies and his choice of letters would actually depend on the game, rather than choosing an unused letter at random, with the more popular ones having a greater chance of being chosen, much like WOF video game computer players. For example, if Watson started the round, and the category was "What Are You Doing?", he would know to spin for an "N," spin for a "G," then buy an "I." If the category is "Things" he would know to start with "S." If he saw "T _ _", he would most likely call "H" then "E," and so on. Watson's spinning would be with overall consistency, since players can't make it look like they are aiming for a particular spot, but nothing says that you can't spin a tad lighter or harder if you fear a Bankrupt or Lose A Turn coming up. Although many contestants don't pay attention to this, it would be cool to see Watson "know the wheel." If the wheel still had its motor, maybe Watson could have connected to it and programmed it to spin a certain number of degrees, but I'd love to see what that "robotic arm" would look like. If Watson were on Wheel, what do you think would happen? I would picture him playing against Caitlin Burke and Michelle Lowenstein. For the Toss-Up puzzles, once each word became more familiar to him (sort of like a suggestion drop-down menu on an internet search), the better chance he'd have of buzzing in. For the Bonus Round, rather than pick the usual CDMA/CDMO, Watson would "think up" words that would fit with the given information, and the most popular letters from those words he would pick.
I hope IBM/Sony considers this. What do you think of Watson and the Wheel, or even other game shows?
P.S.: Check out this video for laughs! ;D
www.slate.com/id/2284900/
*Fun facts: I live in the town where they filmed the special episodes. Since it is a much smaller venue, the entire set was replicated, and IBM was very humble about the taping, so audience members were privately invited to the event by IBM, and I didn't even know that they were taping it here until it was a few hours too late.
...Anyway, do you think it would be interesting to see Watson on Wheel? Harry Friedman was asked if it would ever happen, and he said that Watson would need a robotic arm to spin the wheel. I'm sure IBM could pull it off. Watson would know all the game strategies and his choice of letters would actually depend on the game, rather than choosing an unused letter at random, with the more popular ones having a greater chance of being chosen, much like WOF video game computer players. For example, if Watson started the round, and the category was "What Are You Doing?", he would know to spin for an "N," spin for a "G," then buy an "I." If the category is "Things" he would know to start with "S." If he saw "T _ _", he would most likely call "H" then "E," and so on. Watson's spinning would be with overall consistency, since players can't make it look like they are aiming for a particular spot, but nothing says that you can't spin a tad lighter or harder if you fear a Bankrupt or Lose A Turn coming up. Although many contestants don't pay attention to this, it would be cool to see Watson "know the wheel." If the wheel still had its motor, maybe Watson could have connected to it and programmed it to spin a certain number of degrees, but I'd love to see what that "robotic arm" would look like. If Watson were on Wheel, what do you think would happen? I would picture him playing against Caitlin Burke and Michelle Lowenstein. For the Toss-Up puzzles, once each word became more familiar to him (sort of like a suggestion drop-down menu on an internet search), the better chance he'd have of buzzing in. For the Bonus Round, rather than pick the usual CDMA/CDMO, Watson would "think up" words that would fit with the given information, and the most popular letters from those words he would pick.
I hope IBM/Sony considers this. What do you think of Watson and the Wheel, or even other game shows?
P.S.: Check out this video for laughs! ;D
www.slate.com/id/2284900/
