Welcome Watson – our new computer overlord

Here it is, just sitting on my desk, I'm typing on it now. My computer, my friendly little helper.

But maybe I should be worried that my friendly little helper will one day rise up and type on me.

No, I haven't been reading too many science fiction stories, and I'm not really that worried. But maybe we are one step closer to the future. Watson, a seemingly very intelligent, very large computer built and programmed by IBM has beaten two human champions at the quiz show Jeopardy! 

The reason lots of people find Watson so amazing is its (his?) ability to understand and react to human language. Up to now, that has always been one of computers' biggest weaknesses.

Jeopardy! is not a normal question-and-answer quiz show. Contestants don't answer questions. Instead they get a clue from one of six categories, and in response to the clue they must form a question. So, you could get this clue in the category US presidents: "The third US president". The correct question would be "Who was Thomas Jefferson?"

That's a very easy clue, but often they're much more complex, full of puns and tricky language. Good Jeopardy! contestants not only have to know a LOT of trivia, they also have to be able to quickly understand and interpret the puns and language, keeping in mind what the category is, and buzz in at the right moment.

I mention the category, because while Watson was the undisputed winner, he (it?) had a bad moment, when he responded with "What is Toronto???" to a clue in the category US cities. Any good Jeopardy! player would know of course that Toronto is an important city – in Canada! While Watson's success may be a sign that computers could one day take over (and overtake) the human race, I'm pretty sure the US has no intentions of taking over Toronto.