Doug --
Agreed, good explanations are essential for most real world uses, such as in medicine.
That's why the Executable English system [1,2] provides step-by-step English explanations of its results, drilling down into detail, via hypertext, all the way to the supporting data.
However, Executable English works over structured data tables (e.g. SQL), whereas Watson uses mainly unstructured data. It's a lot harder to produce useful explanations in Watson's case.
Of course, systems like Watson can be used to add structure, which Executable English can then query, but the reliable explanations would stop at the structuring boundary.
-- Adrian
[1] Internet Business Logic
A Wiki and SOA Endpoint for Executable Open Vocabulary English Q/A over SQL and RDF
Online at www.reengineeringllc.com
Shared use is free, and there are no advertisements
[2] www.reengineeringllc.com/demo_agents/MedMine.agent
Adrian Walker
Reengineering
On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 10:37 AM, doug foxvog <doug@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Question answering by a machine such as Watson is not very useful unless
the system can explain its answers. Thus i am disappointed that IBM's
"explanation" of its error in Final Jeopardy does not explain why it
chose its answer.
On Tue, February 15, 2011 21:19, ZENG, MARCIA said:
> FYI:
> Watson's Final Jeopardy Blunder In Day 2 Of IBM Challenge was updated:
>
> UPDATE: IBM posted this explanation for the mistake on its "Smarter
> Planet" blog....
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/15/watson-final-jeopardy_n_823795.html
This explanation is little more than "Jeopardy is hard":
* Category names are tricky and their significance is downgraded.
* There are cities named Toronto in the US
* Toronto, Ontario, has an American League baseball team.
This does not explain why "Toronto" was selected as a response.
In the IBM ads accompanying the show, they discuss Watson being used
for diagnosis -- not just for pointing out information that a doctor
may want to look at for a case. However, without explanation for
a diagnosis -- or even for a recommendation for reviewing some paper,
such use seems quite improper.
-- doug foxvog
> On 2/15/11 8:18 PM, "John F. Sowa" <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On 2/15/2011 4:24 PM, Jerry Hobbs wrote:
>> Actually I think the question asked for an "anatomical anomaly",
>> which could be a body part, like a sixth toe, rather than a disability.
>> The text Watson used referred to the athlete's "wooden leg".
>
> I agree. It found the anomaly, but it made an error in not explaining
> that it was an anomaly. So it should at least get partial credit.
>
> On tonight's round, Watson did very well. But it made a category
> error for which there was no excuse.
>
> The category was US Cities, and all three contestants were given
> 30 seconds to write their answers and the amount they were willing
> to bet.
>
> Question: A city whose largest airport is the name of a war hero
> and whose second largest airport is the name of a WW II battle.
>
> Both humans got the answer right -- Chicago -- and they bet
> the maximum or almost the maximum.
>
> That was tricky because Midway Airport happens to be the
> name of a battle, but it was not named for the battle.
>
> But Watson wrote Toronto and bet $947 (which was a small
> amount, indicating that it wasn't sure).
>
> But the category was "US Cities". It certainly should
> have checked.
>
> John
>
>
>
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doug foxvog doug@xxxxxxxxxx http://ProgressiveAustin.org
"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great
initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours."
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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