Final Jeopardy (Alexandra Cooper Mysteries) - Linda Fairstein [58]
Even so, Lindsay came with a clear strategy to defeat Watson. He quickly saw that Watson mastered factoids but struggled with humor and irony, so he steered clear of Watson-friendly categories. He figured Watson would clean up on Name that Continent, picking out the right landmasses for Estado de Matto Grosso (“What is South America?”) and the Filchner Ice Shelf (“What is Antarctica?”). The category Superheroes Names through Pictures looked much more friendly to humans. Sure enough, Watson was bewildered by clues such as “X marks the spot, man, when this guy opens his peeper” (“What is cyclops?”). Band Names also posed problems for Watson because the clues, like this one, were so murky: “The soul of a deceased person, thankful to someone for arranging his burial” (“What is the Grateful Dead?”). If the clue had included the lead guitarist Jerry Garcia or a famous song by the band, Watson could have identified it in an instant. But clues based on allusions, not facts, left it vulnerable.
More important, since the currency they were playing with was worthless, Lindsay decided to bet the maximum on each Daily Double. If he blew it, he lost nothing. And since he wasn’t on national television, his reputation wouldn’t suffer. As he put it, “There’s no societal fear.” Yet if he won his big bets, he’d be positioned to withstand Watson’s inevitable charges through categories it understood. “I knew he would go on tears,” Lindsay said. “I had to build up big leads when I had the chance.” He aced his big bets and ended up thrashing Watson three times, once scoring an astronomical $59,999 of funny money. (The Jeopardy single-game record was $52,000 until Ken Jennings crushed it, winning $75,000 in his thirty-eighth game.)
Fortunately for Lindsay, he got Watson on what soon appeared to be a very bad day for the bionic star. The speech defect returned. When naming “one of the two monarchies that border China,” the computer said, “What is Bhutand?” The game judge, Karen Ingraffea, consulted with David Shepler. From the observation room, Ferrucci could see them talking but could not hear a word. Shepler nodded grimly. Then he delivered the verdict to Todd Crain. Again Watson was docked, this time $1,000.
“This is silliness!” Ferrucci said.
His concern deepened as Watson started to strike out on questions that should have been easy. One Final Jeopardy clue, in the category 20th-Century People, looked like a cinch. It said: “The July 1, 1946, cover of Time magazine featured him with the caption, ‘All matter is speed and flame’” (“Who is Albert Einstein?”). Watson displayed its top answers on its electronic panel. They were all ridiculous, and to the machine’s credit, it had rock-bottom confidence in them. First was Time 100, a list of influential people that at one time included Einstein. But Watson should have known that the clue was asking for a “him,” not an “it.” For more than two years, Ferrucci’s language programmers had been preparing the machine to parse these clues. They had defined and mapped the twenty-five hundred things Jeopardy clues ask about. The most common of these LATs were looking for a male person, a “he.” Determining that this clue was asking for a man’s name should not have been so hard.
Watson’s second choice, even more absurd, was David Koresh, the founder of the apocalyptic Branch Davidian cult near Waco, Texas. Koresh appeared on the May 3, 1993, cover of Time, days after burning down his compound and immolating everyone in it, including himself. No doubt the “flame” in the clue led Watson to Koresh. But Koresh was not born until thirteen years after Einstein appeared on the Time cover. Watson’s other stabs were “stroke” and the painter Andrew Wyeth.
At this point, Ferrucci’s frustration boiled over. He wasn’t so bothered by the wild guesses, like David Koresh. The system had come up with a few answers that were somehow connected to the clue—a common magazine cover or flame. The confidence engine had done its job.