[ExI] Oxford scientists edge toward quantum PC with 10b qubits.

[Kelly Anderson]

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 11:40 AM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2011/1/31 John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>:
>> Watson, its knowledge base is so vast and it's so good
>> at finding the appropriate information from even vague poorly phrased
>> input that with only a few modifications you could make a program that could
>> speak about anything and do so intelligently enough not to be embarrassing.
>
> Do you seriously believe this?

If it is true, I believe IBM will do it. I can't believe that they
would NOT work on this next.

> Yes, it can handle on the fly research.  But:
>
> 1) Can it remember things it was told, and form its own knowledge base from
> that, for things it can not research?

It would be trivial for Watson to add new text to its system. So if
you "told" it something, it would not be difficult at all for it to
add that text to its database. This seems very straightforward and
(dare I use the word) almost trivial.

One key aspect of Watson is that while it is playing, it can not
access the Internet.

> 2) Can it reason based on the information, or do anything more than match
> keywords?

It is doing FAR MORE than matching keywords. Finding key words is
clearly part of what it's doing, but it also clearly has some form of
inference engine. In one IBM video I watched, it was explained that
for every alternative way a vague sentence could be parsed, Watson
parsed it in ALL of those ways creating a search tree for answers
along all of the paths of innuendo, "pun"ishment, and other bizarre
things that Jeopardy does with the language. Many of these search
trees contained hundreds if not thousands of alternative explanations
as to what was being asked. It then evaluates the answers on each of
those paths, and if it has high enough confidence in its' answer, it
pushes the buzzer. All of this accomplished in three seconds by
thousands of processors.

> 3) Can it take initiative, and supply information even when it is not asked
> something?  (Often times, research is as much about finding the right question
> as about finding the answer to it.  And yes, I know Jeopardy has answers that
> are replied to with questions.  You know what I mean.)

It is apparently programmed to chat with the host. And indeed, all of
the searching above is about finding the right question. Adding
initiative to Watson would not be difficult, it just needs goals.

I can imagine programming with Watson using natural language in a kind
of Prolog style... that would be fun.

Kelly:"Widely recognized as the best restaurant in Orem, UT."
Watson:"What is the Thai Chilli Garden"
Kelly:"...Serving hamburgers"
Watson:"What is Crown Burger"
Kelly:"Address of..."
Watson:"What is 448 N 500W"

-Kelly