Ken Jennings couldn't keep up the pace on Monday night. In the "Jeopardy!" battle of man vs. machine, man and machine were neck-and-neck on Monday.Human player Brad Rutter and the supercomputer named Watson ended an initial round tied at $5,000. Jennings, the other challenger, was far behind with $2,000.
Rutter (the show's all-time money-winner with $3.25 million) and Jennings (who has the longest winning streak at 74 games) are the most successful players in "Jeopardy!" history. Watson, named for IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, is powered by 10 racks of computer servers running the Linux operating system.
"You are about to witness what may prove to be an historic competition," host Alex Trebek told viewers at the top of the answer-and-question quiz show.
No question, Watson proved to be an amazing competitor - maybe even a little creepy in the speed and accuracy it displayed.
With categories including Beatles People, Olympic Oddities and Name the Decade, the round got started with Rutter choosing the first answer, Alternate Meanings for $200: "4-letter word for a vantage point or a belief."
"What is a view?" was Rutter's correct response.
But Watson took charge with its question to Alternate Meanings for $400: "4-letter word for the iron fitting on the hoof of a horse or a card-dealing box in a casino."
