Humanity squared off against its new overlords on Thursday, when an IBM computer named Watson defeated the Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in its first public test. Watson is composed of ten racks of IBM servers running Linux and has access to encyclopedias, dictionaries, books, news, movie scripts, and more. But its most impressive feat is the ability to parse human language, especially on a show like Jeopardy that’s full of hints and jokes. This was just a practice round: The real match will be televised February 14-16. "When Watson's progeny comes back to kill me from the future," said Rutter, "I have my escape route planned just in case."
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