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This is a lecture of how IBM
built a computer that plays

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the very popular
game of Jeopardy!.

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In 2004, IBM Vice President
Charles Lickel and coworkers

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were having dinner
at a restaurant.

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All of a sudden, the
restaurant fell silent.

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Everyone was watching
the game Jeopardy!

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on the television.

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A contestant, Ken Jennings,
was setting the record

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for the longest winning
streak of all time, 75 days.

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Why was everyone so interested?

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Jeopardy!

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is a quiz show that asks complex
and clever questions like puns,

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obscure facts, and
uncommon words.

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It originally aired in 1964.

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It covers a huge
variety of topics,

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and it's generally viewed
as an impressive feat

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to do well in this game.

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No computer system has ever been
developed that could even come

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close to competing with
humans on Jeopardy!.

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IBM Research strives to
push the limits of science.

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It has a tradition of addressing
inspiring and difficult

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challenges over the years.

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In the mid '90s, it built
Deep Blue, a computer,

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to compete against the
best human chess players,

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and then in the
mid '90s, Deep Blue

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beat Garry Kasparov,
who was at that time

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the world champion in chess.

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Later it built Blue
Gene, a computer

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to map the human genome.

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In 2005, a team at
IBM Research started

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creating a computer that
would compete at Jeopardy!

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Of course, no one knew at
the time how to beat humans

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or if it was even possible.

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Six years later, a
two-game exhibition match

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aired on television.

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The winner would receive
a million dollars.

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The contestants were Ken
Jennings, the longest winning

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champion, whose longest
winning streak was 75 days;

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Brad Rutter, who was the
biggest money winner of over 3.5

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million; and Watson, a
supercomputer with 3,000

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processors and a database of 200
million pages of information.

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This is Jeopardy!--
The IBM Challenge.

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And now, here is the host
of Jeopardy!, Alex Trebek.

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Thank you, Johnny Gilbert.

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Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

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And welcome, everyone, to a
very special Jeopardy! event.

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For the next three
days, we're going

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to be coming to you from this
IBM Research facility just

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outside of New York City.

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And let me tell you why.

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A little over three years
ago, the folks at IBM

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came to us with a proposal
that they considered

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to be the next grand
challenge in computing.

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And that was designing
a computer system

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that could understand
the complexities

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of natural language
well enough to compete

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against Jeopardy!'s
best players.

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Well, they think
they've succeeded,

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and that's why we're here today.

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So you are about to witness
what may prove to be an historic

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competition -- an exhibition
match pitting an IBM computer

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system against the two most
celebrated and successful

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players in Jeopardy! history.

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Sounds like a lot
of fun, doesn't it?

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Developed and programmed
especially for this moment,

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making its first appearance
on our national television

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program, ladies and
gentlemen, this is Watson.

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Just as I expected, that
was a very warm reception.

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And I'm sure Watson
would've appreciated

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the applause, except
for one thing.

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Watson can neither hear nor see.

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It will be receiving all of
its information electronically.

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And as a matter of fact, what
you're looking at right now

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is not the real Watson.

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This is an avatar.

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This is a representation
of Watson.

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Watson, of course, is a
sophisticated computer system

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too big and too heavy to
fit behind that lectern

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on our stage.

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But it is close by.

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It's right next door.

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And a little while
ago, I paid it a visit.

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The very first thing
you will notice

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as I come into Watson's
space is noise.

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There is a lot of noise.

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A little bit comes from Watson
himself, but most of the noise

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comes from two very
large refrigerator

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units that help to
keep Watson cool.

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Now as you can see, Watson
has been set up in two units.

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Each half contains
five separate racks.

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Each of these racks contains
10 IBM Power 750 servers.

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Now when you link
all of these servers

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together, as they
have done for Watson,

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you create a deep
analytic system

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that is the equivalent of
2,800 powerful computers tied

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together in a super
high speed network.