Ken Jennings news stories on Newser

Watson's Win a Victory ... for Humans

Matt Cantor — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:32:05 CST

Going into his Jeopardy! match against IBM’s Watson supercomputer, champ Ken Jennings saw himself as humanity’s representative, "the Great Carbon-Based Hope against a new generation of thinking machines," he writes for Slate . But victory wasn’t to be: Watson played Jeopardy much like a top-ranked human. (Quipped Jennings: "It's very smart,...

Jeopardy Challenge Ends With Humans Crushed

Rob Quinn — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:03:07 CST

"I for one, welcome our new computer overlords," defeated Jeopardy contestant Ken Jennings wrote below his final answer as the game show's 3-day supercomputer challenge wrapped up. IBM's Watson finished way ahead with $77,147 while Jennings and Brad Rutter—the two most successful human contestants in Jeopardy history—finished...

Jeopardy Computer Trounces Humans On Day 2

Rob Quinn — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 22:53:09 CST

Watson trounced its human opponents on the second day of the 3-day Jeopardy challenge, but humanity saved some face after the IBM supercomputer goofed on the final question. The category was US cities and the clue was "Its largest airport was named for a World War II hero; its second...

Man Ties With Machine in Jeopardy Showdown

Rob Quinn — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:09:56 CST

The first round of Jeopardy 's three-game man versus supercomputer showdown finished Monday night with humanity having fended off the rise of the machine. Human player Brad Rutter, the game show's record money-winner, was tied with IBM supercomputer Watson at $5,000 at the close of play, AP reports. The...

Why Watson Will (or Won't) Beat Jeopardy's Kings

Matt Cantor — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:43:06 CST

Tonight, IBM’s Watson computer will go head-to-head with Jeopardy legends Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in the first of three matches. Do they stand a chance against the machine? Definitely, writes Greg Lindsay for Fast Company . He’s an actual human who’s beaten the computer three times, thanks in part to...

Computer Squashes Men in Jeopardy Test Match

Evann Gastaldo — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 07:36:38 CST

First, computers took all the fun out of Sudoku —could Jeopardy be next? Watson, a computer designed by IBM specifically to compete on the game show, beat two legendary champs yesterday in its first public test: Ken Jennings, who won a record number of games, and Brad Rutter, who won...

Nerds Bet Machine Can Beat Man on Jeopardy

Nathan Deuel — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:27:11 CDT

Hal, meet Watson. IBM announced it will unleash a new supercomputer program, named after founder Thomas J. Watson, which they say could beat human competitors on Jeopardy , the New York Times reports. More advanced than the software that beat chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997, Watson will weigh nearly infinite...

Best Celebrity Websites

Sophie Goldstein — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 10:29:34 CDT

The editors at PC magazine gave high marks to sites they found imaginative (Jeff Bridges), surprising (Pat Sajack), or loaded with great content (Beck). And they dismissed money-hungry sites with a lot of gated content. Here, their faves: Jeff Bridges (www.jeffbridges.com) Tyra Banks (www.tyrabanks.com) Ken Jennings...