Aired
February 09, 2011
NOVA
NOVA
Smartest Machine on Earth #S38E13
Augmenting human intelligence is a lot tougher than it looks, and the promise of "Hal" from 2001: A Space Odyssey is still just a fantasy. But scientists are edging closer with machines like "Watson," an IBM computing system that is gearing up for a first-of-its-kind challenge: taking on human contestants on the game show Jeopardy! With a brain the size of 2,400 home computers and a database of about 10 million documents, will Watson be able to compute its way to victory? Given the complexity of human language, could any computer truly understand it? It remains to be seen if this amalgam of circuits and silicon can really take us closer to the dream of a fully developed artificial intelligence, a truly "conscious" machine. Win or lose, the difficulty of mimicking the human thought process with software is showing artificial-intelligence researchers that there's more than one way to be "intelligent."
Episode 13 of Season 38 from NOVA — available to stream in HD on any device.
Comments & Discussions
Join the conversation
Sign in to leave a comment
No comments yet
Be the first to share your thoughts!
Recommended
Because you liked NOVA
Rise of the Nazis
Rise of the Nazis
Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Mike Brewer: Born Dealer
Mike Brewer: Born Dealer
1000 Ways to Dine
1000 Ways to Dine
The Deep End
The Deep End
Secret Weapons of World War II
Secret Weapons of World War II
America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys
America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys
Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror
Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror
The Proof Is Out There: UnXplained Edition
The Proof Is Out There: UnXplained Edition
The Home Team: New York Jets
The Home Team: New York Jets
Explore Content
Search for movies, TV shows, collections, manga, or people
Trending Now