Since 1964, the game show "Jeopardy" has pitted humans against one another in a duel of trivial information. Well, the game show will soon get an entirely new type of contestant when scientists enter a computer into the competition. IBM has finally, after two years, unveiled its Question Answering system, which goes by the name "Watson." Not only will the computer’s effort challenge human contestants, but it will provide a test for artificial intelligence. From an IBM statement, via Information Week:

["Jeopardy"] poses a grand challenge for a computing system due to the variety of subject matter, the speed at which contestants must provide accurate responses, and because the clues given to contestants involve analyzing subtle meaning, ironies, riddles, and other complexities at which humans excel and computers traditionally do not.

"Jeopardy" producing company Sony couldn’t be more thrilled with the prospect, and CEO Howard Stringer remarked, "the gold standard for savvy game players everywhere. It is the perfect platform on which IBM can demonstrate its computing power."