Understanding Artificial Intelligence and IBM's Watson

The speaker reflects on their journey from skepticism to belief in artificial intelligence, particularly through the lens of IBM's Watson. They discuss their academic background in machine learning and natural language processing, emphasizing the challenges of working with human language. Watson's ability to answer complex Jeopardy questions by analyzing vast amounts of text is highlighted as a significant achievement in AI. The speaker describes Watson's use of predictive modeling to generate and score candidate answers, achieving high accuracy. They express amazement at Watson's human-like performance, considering it a form of intelligence.

What was the speaker's initial stance on artificial intelligence?

• They never believed in AI.

• They were always a believer.

• They believed in AI from the start.

• They were skeptical but recently became a believer.

What example does the speaker use to illustrate intelligence?

• Apple's Siri

• Amazon's Alexa

• Google's search engine

• IBM's Watson

What are the two main areas of study the speaker focused on in graduate school?

• Robotics and AI ethics

• Machine learning and natural language processing

• Data mining and computer vision

• Cybersecurity and software engineering

Why is working with human language challenging for computers?

• Because it is too simple

• Because it requires a lot of memory

• Because it is not logical

• Because it involves complex grammar and context

What does Watson use to answer Jeopardy questions?

• A list of common trivia questions

• A database of previous Jeopardy winners

• A snapshot of Wikipedia articles

• A small set of pre-programmed answers

What is the core technology Watson uses to find answers?

• Predictive modeling

• Image recognition

• Voice synthesis

• Quantum computing

How does Watson determine the most likely correct answer?

• By randomly selecting an answer

• By scoring each candidate answer

• By using a magic 8-ball

• By asking a human for help

What percentage of the time is Watson correct when it buzzes in?

• 50-60%

• 70-80%

• 90-92%

• 100%

What aspect of Watson's performance is highlighted as impressive?

• Its ability to play music

• Its ability to mimic human-like intelligence

• Its speed in processing data

• Its colorful display

What did the speaker find surprising about Watson's abilities?

• Its ability to fly

• Its ability to paint

• Its anthropomorphic qualities

• Its ability to cook