Watson: Humans win again

Over the course of three episodes of exhibition matches, Watson, after staying close to the two former champs early on, eventually crushed them. It thereby delivered on all of the hype that surrounded its much-publicized development, which, depending on the person asked to estimate, cost IBM between $100 million and $2 billion (the company won’t reveal the amount) over a three-year period. The computer wasn’t perfect (at one point, it gave Toronto as an answer when the category was “US Cities’’), but, for the most part, it was able to easily navigate the nuanced, pun-laden language that characterizes “Jeopardy!’’, showing a remarkably human capacity for understanding host Alex Trebek’s questions.

Watson’s victory highlights the dizzying pace at which computer technology has progressed. Today, smartphone users carry in their hands an amount of computing power that would have been unthinkable for personal use just a quarter-century ago. Watson’s remarkable flexibility and adaptability, its ability to understand nuance in a very human way, show that given enough time, money, and human labor, there are few tests that modern computer science cannot pass with flying colors.

That’s not to say that the age of the neuron is over, Jennings’ joke notwithstanding. In many ways, even a computer as advanced as Watson lacks the capabilities packed into every human skull. What Watson really shows is the extent of human ingenuity, in the form of its makers. Now that it has moved on from the “Jeopardy!’’ circuit, Watson and its successors will soon be taking on other, more substantive problems once thought only suitable to humans — but for which humans have devised a better solution.