IBM computer to take on Jeopardy champions

Jeopardy Watson
The ultimate battle between man and machine on Jeopardy

A computer specially designed to play the US TV quiz Jeopardy will take on the show's finest champions in the first of three special editions tonight.

The IBM computer named Watson has been programmed to 'understand the human language with all its ambiguity and complexity.'

The machine hosts one million books' worth of information, with 200 million pages of content in its memory bank, can analyse questions and deliver an answer in less than three seconds.

Watson, named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson has trained against past Jeopardy champs in preparation for the charity event, but tonight will face all-time greats Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

Double Jeopardy?

Jeopardy, which we're sure you've all seen at some point, is the show where the contestants are given the answer and have to respond with the question in order to win a set amount of cash.

For example, if the answer were: "An operating system which replaced Windows Vista" the question would be "What is Windows 7?"

Unfortunately it's not screened in the UK, but we'll keep you up to speed with how the contest is going over the course of the next few days.

On the day technology finally takes over and turns us into batteries, perhaps we'll look back at this day as the tide-turner?

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.