There we have it. The IBM Jeopardy Challenge has concluded, so what follows is a brief review of what happened tonight. Once again, West Coasties (and anyone else who didn’t get to see the final episode live) should probably click away for now—there will be spoilers. You have been warned.
One last warning: that way spoilers lie!
In a victory for science, Watson, the IBM-developed artificial intelligence, has indeed won. The final scores were $77,147 for Watson, $24,000 for Ken Jennings, and $21,600 for Brad Rutter.
At the beginning of the show the previous night’s total were totally wiped, only to be added to tonight’s score after Final Jeopardy. Watson started the game on a tear, like always. Ironically enough, Watson had trouble with the “also on your keyboard” category. In fact, Watson struggled for much of the first round, tripping over the seemingly more “pun-y” or idiomatic categories.
The second round was an epic battle between Watson and Ken Jennings. It was incredibly tense.
All three contestants answered the Final Jeopardy question correctly, but by then Ken Jennings admitted what we’ve all been thinking: it’s time to welcome our new artificial intelligence overlords.
