Quote of the Week

We had two solid contenders for this week's Quote of the Week crown, one of whom is a familiar face around these parts. In an epic rant about the ludicrous trillion-dollar platinum coin proposal that inexplicably gained traction last week before quickly being shot down (but not before turning our political and economic discourse into a Simpsons-esque farce), Stephen Colbert delivered a classic line about the recently re-elected President Obama, saying, "we should have known a coin was Obama's solution to everything—it was right there in his slogan... CHANGE!"

The whole clip is worth a watch, if only because Colbert does an excellent job of breaking down the whole it's-legal-because-it's-not-technically-illegal basis upon which the entire proposal relied, which is interestingly pretty much the same basis upon which Obamacare was upheld by the Supreme Court this summer. Nevertheless, this week's Quote of the Week is going to come from a totally different source, although also technically a familiar "face" around here.

A couple of years ago, an IBM supercomputer named Watson made waves when he (it?) beat two great Jeopardy! champions in an exhibition match, in the process demonstrating the potential for computing in the next generation. The IBM team has continued to fiddle with Watson, hoping to refine the computer's ability to comprehend human language (and to minimize some of the memorable gaffes that he made on the show). Part of that tinkering process involved incorporating slang into Watson's vocabulary, which... well, let's just let Fortune's Michael Lev-Ram tell the rest of the story.

This week's QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"[IBM research scientist Eric] Brown attempted to teach Watson the Urban Dictionary. The popular website contains definitions for terms ranging from Internet abbreviations like OMG, short for "Oh, my God," to slang such as "hot mess." But Watson couldn't distinguish between polite language and profanity—which the Urban Dictionary is full of. Watson picked up some bad habits from reading Wikipedia as well. In tests it even used the word "bullshit" in an answer to a researcher's query. Ultimately, Brown's 35-person team developed a filter to keep Watson from swearing and scraped the Urban Dictionary from its memory. But the trial proves just how thorny it will be to get artificial intelligence to communicate naturally."
                                                - Michael Lev-Ram, Fortune

Too funny. I can't get the concept of a foul-mouthed robot spewing insults at everyone out of my head. In fact, it makes me want to build a Watson for myself and program him only with things he picked up from Urban Dictionary. But I digress.

I still think that the potential for artificial intelligence is incredibly high, but this speaks volumes about how weird and nuanced human thought and communication can be, and therefore how difficult it can be to replicate. Given how frequently public figures put their feet in their mouths with episodes of careless and thoughtless speech, I can only imagine how bad things might be for a computer that hasn't been programmed to understand the subtleties of (and contradictions in) modern language.

[Fortune]

Yes

Poor Ken Jennings. Guy just can't catch a break.

(h/t Michael)

In praise of IBM

IBM is turning 100 this year, and in celebration of that fact, the company is gradually releasing a list of its 100 most significant contributions to American society (their so-called "Icons of Progress"). A bit self-congratulatory, sure, but it's a truly impressive list that shows just how adaptable and transformational Big Blue has been as the U.S. economy has twisted and turned and ambled its way through a strange century.

Technology has come a long way since the days of President Taft, and IBM has been there every step of the way. That's no small feat in the famously fast-moving and unforgiving world of high-tech (just ask Sony... better yet, ask Gateway), and I don't blame them for taking a step back to appreciate it all. From inventing the UPC code to developing the floppy disk to (of course) the creation of the PC to even creating the accounting setup that supported our Social Security system, there is almost literally no area of American life where IBM's impact hasn't been felt.

In an era where many of our biggest companies seem intent on lobbying their way to prosperity, afraid that innovation in their industries might threaten their existing business (I'm looking at you, auto and gas companies), IBM is a refreshing example of a company which has consistently viewed innovation not as a threat, but as an opportunity. They have been unafraid to make some of their older products obsolete in the process of working toward a better and more efficient world. In doing so, they have taken part in an unprecedented era of technological growth and change, with their fingerprints all over it.

In fact, their embrace of innovation and change throughout their history is in large part exactly why they're still here today--they were never afraid to fail, and that is why they succeeded. Too many companies today are stricken with the curse of mediocrity, afraid to risk what is already "good" for the possibility that they might someday be "great". IBM suffers from no such affliction, and that is why their contributions are so ubiquitous today.

[IBM]

Clip of the Week

In case you missed it, an IBM computer named Watson took on the two greatest Jeopardy! champions of all time last week in an exhibition contest. Watson's victory has been hailed as the latest triumph of computing power, and welcomed by many as a sign of the future.

This week's video, which is admittedly a self-congratulatory marketing piece from IBM, nevertheless does a fantastic job of summarizing the Watson project and its implications. I think it's pretty cool. And I, for one (like Ken Jennings), welcome our new computer overlords.