Watson vs. My Wife

[Bob78164]

I would pay good money to see Watson vs. Schliemann. No third player... just the two of them.

I still have not seen one shred of conclusive proof they are not the same.

"Toronto." --Bob

[Volante]

I would pay good money to see Watson vs. Schliemann. No third player... just the two of them.

I still have not seen one shred of conclusive proof they are not the same.

"Toronto." --Bob

Ahh, but that's the genius of that response! It's the magician's misdirection; an answer that incorrect could only be the result of a poor algorithm that doesn't find the proper keywords in the clue given...or someone so clever that it makes us think it's a poor algorithm!

[andreaborn]

At the match against Harvard and MIT, how did the buzzers work and what were the special rules for having three players on each team? It appeared that all three players on each team had a buzzer, but I couldn't tell for sure. Was only one person allowed to answer, select clues, and make wagers? Were they allowed to confer after buzzing? Did the person who buzzed first have to be the one who answered? If any one of the three mistimed and buzzed too soon, were the other two locked out?

Yes, 3 buzzers per team, all linked so that "locked out" applied to the whole team. There was time for brief conferring after ringing in, and anyone could answer, select clues, and make wagers. At Watson-Cal-Stanford It was pretty casual but the teams operated very smoothly -- I think they play quiz bowl together and are used to quick joint decision-making when needed (though I don't know anything about quiz bowl play).

If Ken, Brad, and Jerome played as a team by the same rules, could they have beaten Watson?

Absolutely, especially without a third player -- as seaborgium said earlier in the thread, "They have Watson play with two sentient opponents for the same reason they have Watson play using impeccable buzzer timing." Caveat: unless they tweaked Watson's timing even more....

[TheConfessor]

Thanks for the reply, andreaborn. It seems as if there could be occasional team strategy disputes that would be hard to referee unless one person is designated the official team captain and spokesman. Glad that wasn't a problem in this case. I wonder how much the game is affected by having three buzzers per team. On the one hand, it could triple the very small chance of beating Watson on the buzzer, but on the other hand, it could triple the chance of getting locked out. I suspect that it really doesn't make a big difference, since in most cases, humans only win the buzzer when Watson opts not to try.

[dhkendall]

humans only win the buzzer when Watson opts not to try.

"The only winning move is not to play"