10 Questions for IBM's Watson

An Intelligent Idea
Watson's most recent significant antecedent is IBM's chess -playing Deep Blue, which faced off against World Chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. After the computer won the six-game match 3.5 to 2.5, the scientists at IBM sought a new challenge. In 2004, IBM Research manager Charles Lickel was dining with coworkers at a restaurant where nearly all the patrons had piled toward televisions in mid-meal to watch as Ken Jennings — a contestant on Jeopardy! who ultimately won 74 straight matches — answered the quiz show's clues. Intrigued by the quiz show as a possible challenge, Lickel passed an idea of creating a computer to play as a participant on Jeopardy! to IBM.