Opening Position  |  APR 2011

Opening Position by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan

Hats off to Ibm’s Watson supercomputer for its victory on the TV show Jeopardy! I was interested in finding out if Watson would prevail, but I had reservations about watching the show just because I didn’t want to find out that a computer’s trivia knowledge was better than mine. Do the results of this game have any implications of which way the world is heading? In this situation you have Watson, which uses a computer processor to analyze all possible outcomes, versus humans, who use their instincts to try to come up with possible outcomes. And the computer wins. I think the main reason behind this victory was that Watson didn’t have to confront any of the emotions that we humans constantly have to. This gave Watson a clear advantage. In the game of Jeopardy!, the contestant who first hits the buzzer gets to respond first. Humans are more likely to take a little longer to hit that buzzer because they may have to give a little thought before coming up with their response. They may fear being incorrect or may not have full confidence in their response. They could have any number of emotions running through their heads before they hit the buzzer. Doesn’t this remind you of trading? Don’t you have a ton of thoughts running through your head before you hit that enter button?

by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan