IBM‘s Watson supercomputer seems like an amiable-enough character, judging from his performance in a practice run against two top Jeopardy players. (Then again, H.A.L. seemed friendly and helpful too, until crossed by a human.) Should the emergence of technology that enables computers to understand and emulate human communications be viewed with any degree of trepidation?

“From an AI standpoint, the fact that IBM was able to build a computer that can interact on an intellectual basis with human speech clearly has ramifications that are far beyond Jeopardy,” said Scott Testa, a marketing professor for Cabrini College.

“But I think for people to accept that, it has to debut first in places like Jeopardy,” he told TechNewsWorld, “taking it to a basic level that people can understand and smile at before they let it make more complicated computations for them.”

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Mild-Mannered-Watson-Skewers-Human-Opponents-on-Jeopardy-71651.html?wlc=1295064516