It’s time for Rush Holt, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, to seriously start thinking about running for the presidency in 2016, for he seems to be the only person capable of leading the country and the human race to victory in the coming war against the machines. Holt, a bona fide rocket scientist before joining Congress in 1999 and an actual five-time winner on Jeopardy!, defeated IBM’s seemingly unstoppable triviabot Watson during an untelevised practice round of Jeopardy! in Washington last night. Holt tweeted the news: “I played a full round against @IBMWatson tonight and was proud to hold my own: the final tally was Holt $8,600, Watson $6,200.”
The world is rejoicing — Nancy Pelosi tweets: “Congratulations to @RushHolt for showing @IBMWatson human intelligence isn’t in #jeopardy!” — and rightly so, but don’t get carried away. Despite Holt’s victory, the match still contained some ominous signs of Watson’s growing sophistication, according to CNN:
Watson knows what love is! We are running out of time!
Rep. Rush Holt beats IBM’s Watson in ‘Jeopardy!’ [Asbury Park Press]