On Monday, Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) beat IBM's super-computer, Watson, at a round of "Jeopardy!"as part of an event organized by IBM. (To be fair, Holt is not your average congressman, especially not when it comes to trivia. He's a five-time "Jeopardy!" champion and a nuclear physicist, to boot). Nevertheless, Holt said the prospect of facing a computerized opponent was daunting. "I watched a few episodes [of Watson] against Jennings a few weeks ago, and I thought I was in for trouble." Not so. At the end of his round, Holt had 8,600 points to Watson's 6,200. He tweeted, "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."
