Tonight I watched a computer trump its human rivals in Jeopardy. “We’re fucking doomed,” I thought as I watched the IBM computer system, dubbed ‘Watson,’ repeatedly ring in with the correct response as the most accomplished Jeopardy players of all time looked on clutching their buzzers, impotent, helpless. The computers are getting smarter. That Matrix shit is coming true.
Then I remembered… a computer program is only as good as its programmer. And while there may be IBM programmers who can fashion software that can wow Alex Trebek, we are not yet clever enough to devise artificial intelligence that won’t answer “What is Toronto?” in response to a Final Jeopardy category entitled “US Cities” (here). Humanity is safe, for now.
