By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-03-04 01:43:29 | Word Count: 664
Democratic and Republican United States Representatives from all over the country met in Washington to take their turn at sparring against Watson, the impressive computer from IBM. Watson, which took four years and several man hours of research to develop, has been touted as the most visible step towards the advancement of artificial intelligence. A few weeks ago Watson demolished Kenn Jennings and Brad Rutter on the popular game show Jeopardy! Watson is designed to answer Jeopardy! questions using an extensive database of information compiled by twenty-five researchers via search engines and other sources.
In the recent past, these two human competitors had done extremely well on the show with extensive winning streaks and earnings. But before these Jeopardy! champions there was Rush Holt, now a U.S. Representative from New Jersey. Rep. Holt managed to become a five-time champion on Jeopardy almost four decades ago. Representatives took turns competing against Watson and Rep. Holt ended up with higher winnings after the first round. Watson got beat by one of the smartest U.S. Representatives out there, but advanced to beat a few others afterward. In total, Watson earned about ten thousand dollars more than its’ human competitors.
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It is not shocking that Watson got beat by Rep. Holt because Watson has been beaten on a few occasions, particularly while preparing to compete on Jeopardy! Watsons’ defeats aren’t as publicized as its wins. But due to the position of Mr. Holt, and his past as a Jeopardy! champion, the media recognition is only fitting. Rep. Holt has the chops to back up his win. He has a PhD in physics and has been an arms control expert for the State Department. He is more than a formidable opponent.
This just goes to show that artificial human knowledge doesn’t necessarily trump humans. If you think about it, humans are the ones that programmed Watson to start with. The issue however is that over a sustained period, Watson is able to beat human intelligence. After Holt’s win he made sure to emphasize his desire to invest more resources into math and science education. He no doubt accredits and links his Watson victory and success to being exposed to math and science at a young age.
Many politicians, from President Obama on down, have been stressing the need for the United States to become more educationally competitive on the world stage. We lag far behind many developed countries. I agree that as technology increases, the average American needs to become more educated and informed if we stand a chance at keeping up. With globalization, national borders have weakened and we have let foreign nations supply us with the technology that we use every day. Countries like India, China and Japan make educating their citizens a top priority. Not only is the cost of a college education widening the gap, but there is a general lack of math and science instruction beginning at pre-kindergarten. By the time Americans reach high-school, their interest in math and science has not been nurtured enough for them to want to pursue further instruction in their post-secondary education.
