Most of the crew on that works on “Jeopardy!” also works on “Wheel of Fortune”.
By “most of” I mean: not me.
I'm not all that broken up that I don't work on 'Wheel' but I do have my moments; moments like when I hear stories from the other crew about 'Wheel' remotes -traveling to tape shows in a different city- upon their return from places like Orlando, New Orleans (they missed Katrina by a few hours) and Hawaii -twice!
Jeopardy travels much less frequently, but when we do we go to hot vacation spots like: Columbus, Ohio, Madison, Wisconsin and Yorktown Heights, New York... in the dead of winter.
That's okay though. I'll take freezy Yorktown heights over Hawaii any day...
Okay... maaaaybe that's a stretch.
I really do prefer it on three days in particular though: February 14th, 15th and 16th 2011.
Here's why...
When I arrived at the T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY last Thursday, it wasn't the first time I had been there. We had installed a set of podiums and electronics a year ago to allow a team of scientists to run a series of practice games.
Practice games of what? Oh not much, just a computer that can play Jeopardy against humans.
The IBM TJ Watson Research Center, whose semi circular main hallway extends
for a third of a mile, was completed in 1961 by architect Eero Saarinen,
who also designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
Both of the times that I was there, it looked more like this:
I wasn't at all intimidated by the fact that all the researchers at TJW are PHDs and that there are several Nobel laureates that have walked, and continue to walk, those halls... until someone pointed that out to me.
Some of these gifted folks had accepted what is known at IBM as a “Grand Challenge” a non-linear leap in development; basically attempting the impossible. Their goal in this case was to develop a computer that could provide answers from huge gobs of data to questions in natural language. Their goal could loosely be compared to a sort-of Star Trek computer that could parse contextual human speech, not just pile you up with tons of documents related to a keyword search, but deliver the precise and relevant information you need.
Oh, yeah and it has to be fast.
You'd think (I did) that maybe they were trying to build a better search engine for the Internet, but they have bigger fish to fry than helping me find that video of the 'dude with the thing', you know the 'round thing' with all the... and it's kinda red or something...
Though this technology could be applied to nearly any field, health care is end-use they are primarily focused on.
Why?
Letsee... save a life/find a video of the 'dude with the thing'.
You figure it out.
In the tradition of Deep Blue, the super computer that went up against chess master Gary Kasparov in the 1990's, what better test of natural language than Jeopardy clues to hone this technology to an art.
Watson and me, a year and many versions ago.
After we installed the podiums and electronics they needed to have a computer play Jeopardy in sparring matches at IBM, I returned home. Months went by. I heard a snippet here and there about the project. Then, suddenly, all information seemed to stop.
This it usually means things are happening.
A little over a month ago I was given a travel itinerary to go to the same IMB research facility where we had installed our podiums. There was going to be a special Jeopardy competition with IBM's Watson computer competing in real-time against to the two top Jeopardy players of all time: Ken Jennings, who had a 74 game winning streak, and undefeated Brad Rutter, who has won the most money on Jeopardy, or any other game show.
That's pretty cool all by itself!
Last week, when I arrived at IBM with the rest of the electronics crew, the grip and lighting departments had already been there several days and had begun the process of converting IBM's modest 200 seat theater into a 140 seat television studio (they had to remove some sections of seating to build-out the stage).
Getting the stage and the electronics up and running was going to be a challenge itself. We had never used such a small space to tape shows. Just getting around from place-to-placewith all those people and all that gear was an exercise in patience and courtesy. I haven't said “excuse me” so much since I accidentally ate an entire roach coach of bean and jalapeno burritos.
A couple days later, the stage and the tech was beginning to take shape. The hallway outside the theater was jammed with racks and cable. Two 53' production trucks (audio, graphics, camera shading and control rooms on wheels) pulled up outside and hooked up to dozens of video, audio and fiber optic cables.
Here's a quick video showing some of the tech in what was just a plain featureless hallway and the production trucks parked outside.
Watson itself takes up an entire room using 90, IBM Power 750 computers; which all together contain 2800 processing cores. The cooling system sounds like a jet engine.
There were a few things that had to be worked out to have Watson play Jeopardy. How would we get the questions to Watson? How would he answer? How would he ring in? Do humans have a chance against a computer. Does the computer have a chance against humans?
I'll let you watch the shows to learn the answers to most of these questions but one thing I will say is that Watson has no access to the Internet so it won't be 'Googling' the answers.
Even if Watson could use the Internet, a machine with such advanced AI trying to get answers from the slow to medium data-only Internet would be like a Los Angeles class nuclear submarine pulling up at Don's Last Chance Gas in Peddle Frock, Utah for fuel and a potty break.
The biggest hurdle for Watson is to parse and organize the puns and word play of Jeopardy clues to determine what the actual question is.
Watson behind the glass. I'm here to tell ya, it's really noisy in there!
That's next 'rilly-rilly kewl' thing that Watson does it answers with not just one response with hundreds of potential responses to each clue. It grades each with a confidence rating and calculates a 'buzz threshold' to determine whether it should take the risk of ringing-in or how much to bet on a “Daily Double”. During the shows that will air in February, a graphic showing Watson's top three potential responses and their confidence ratings will display in real time.
A couple days later, we were ready to rehearse with our famous contestants: Ken and Brad.
A hundred members of the press from around the world filled the theater as Ken and Brad had their first shot playing against Watson. A press conference followed with Alex Trebek, Ken and Brad, Harry Friedman—Jeopardy's executive producer, and David Ferruci, the IBM scientist that has headed the project.
I suppose I could have left my scoring station at the producer's desk and relaxed somewhere but I had never actually attended a press conference before, especially on such a ground-breaking event.
Later that day my mother called: “I just saw this thing on CNN. Is that the project you're working on?”
I didn't have a chance to see any news coverage myself. There was still lots of details to get the podiums and electronics ready for the big day: tape day.
Everything was ready. As with any major undertaking, especially one never-before tried, we had to handle one or two technical issues but by the end of the day we had three great shows on tape and ready for post production (editing, mastering and QC). The reason we taped three shows was that because this was an event of such stature that we played it like the final two games of a tournament (where three finalists pair off and their two-day totals determine the winner.)
“But that's just two shows” you say.
Oh so say you?
Instead of just game-play the Jeopardy episodes will also include the story of Watson and the challenge.
I enjoyed my time at TJW and being a part of history. I would come back anytime just because it's a really cool place, and I don't mean the snow! I got a chance to take a tour before we left which included, oh, just a NUCLEAR PARTICLE ACCELERATOR!!!
Very few of these in the world!
And now my hairs falling out and stuff -just kidding,
there were no isotopes present during our visit.
I'm not here to promote Jeopardy or IBM but I really believe that everyone should see these shows. For me, it was truly amazing to watch Watson play, far more than I expected it to be. Kinda like those wide eyed scientists in the final scenes of “Close Encounters”...
Okay, okay, maybe a notch or two down from that. Years from now you will be able to say you saw what very well may eventually change everything, your grand kids will act all unimpressed but they will be someday... with something... maybe.
If ground-breaking technology and historic events don't blow up your skirt, it's always very entertaining and funny to watch Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter play Jeopardy and quip between the clues.
February 14th, 15th and 16th. Jeopardy is syndicated so it depends on where you live where to find it. I think it's safe to say that this won't be the last you'll hear about it.
For me, it would be nice to watch from Hawaii, but my living room will do just fine.
At least it ain't Madison, Wisconsin.
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