Game Over

Surprisingly it seems even the best Jeopardy players in the world are not that good at Jeopardy. Also surprisingly it seems most people were not in awe that Watson won: http://www.kurzweilai.net/human-vs-ai-contest-on-jeopardy-first-day-results-just-announced

Hmmm... but why?
I think it's perhaps because we are already used to computers providing answers. Go into a college math course and every student has a calculator! Want to find an answer everyone says "Google it" or "Look it up..." which implies on a computer. In truth with the rise of the internet we have become reliant on computers not just as a source of information, but the primary source. Granted the actually searching is done by us. The knowledge found is human knowledge written by humans, but the idea of seeing a machine provide an answer was very easy to cope with, and in hindsight it seems that we have done so all along.

NOTE: I'm not saying yesterday was not an important day. The AI needed to search through data and find answers will eliminate a lot of the funny phrasing and techniques we use to day to search for information via keywords and things. We can find answers now to questions in natural language, now currently doing a regular search may be faster for smaller stuff, but for really technical questions there's just no way. Often you need subscriptions to special databases to look through their contents. A Watson could look through all those databases and give us just the answer we need. And we don't have to play the "keyword game". Rather I can describe an idea or a relation and Watson can find that relation. Currently it only gives simple one word answer, but imagine the day, which I don't think is too far off when it starts giving complex well-worded answers to question along with references to the data. I can't wait till I can have a personal Watson to handle the data in my life. "When is Class?" "What time is this event?" "Has my mail arrived yet?" "What's the answer to problem 44?" "What technique is used to solve this problem?". That may seem like a lot, but as Watson handles the little things, we humans should be able to turn are attention to creating new information and less on gathering old data.