Quote:
Originally Posted by cuervo72
Actually, not surprised at all that you can skim for the "catch" in the clue. Also, I think personally I would have a much harder time playing w/o being able to read the clue - I process that just as much as Trebek. (Makes Eddie Timanus' performance all the more impressive to me.)
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Ya, but as fast as any person can visually skim a clue Watson can easily do it many times faster. Audio only input is the only way to be fair to all contestants.
Given my guesses at the most general way the Watson machine works, if it doesn't get the keywords among the last few uttered until the end the quality of it's search is going to be very weak in the first few seconds of the clue read because it lacks the same level of contextual intuition a human has in the same situation. Those few seconds (or however long those words are) will actually cut severely into the processing time available.
Granted Watson is an accomplishment as it is, it has reached an incredibly powerful time bound that has been out of reach for machines for a long time (and sorts through a number of problems in language processing and understanding along the way). Quibbling over the quality of the inputs on weak old humans is minor in comparison, but in a buzzer sensitive game like Jeoparody I think it is warranted. Buzzer timing by itself is an art... look at school quiz game competitions, without the 'wait until the end of the clue' rule you will constantly see buzzes within the first few words of a two sentence clue, as soon as they get the first partial fact a gamer will anticipate and risk an answer to get an edge. Maybe not so much if they don't get practice packets of the questions in advance, cough cough damn kids who buzz in on the first two words of a clue and give an answer with zero context because they remember the first two words as unique...