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Nova

Smartest Machine On Earth

Season 38, Episode 6 of 15

What's so special about human intelligence and will scientists ever build a computer that rivals the flexibility and power of a human brain? In "Artificial Intelligence," NOVA takes viewers inside an IBM lab where a crack team has been working for nearly three years to perfect a machine that can answer any question. The scientists hope their machine will be able to beat expert contestants in one of the USA's most challenging TV quiz shows -- Jeopardy, which has entertained viewers for over four decades. "Artificial Intelligence" presents the exclusive inside story of how the IBM team developed the world's smartest computer from scratch. Now they're racing to finish it for a special Jeopardy airdate in February 2011. They've built an exact replica of the studio at its research lab near New York and invited past champions to compete against the machine, a big black box code -- named Watson after IBM's founder, Thomas J. Watson. But will Watson be able to beat out its human competition?

More From this Series

Previously Aired

Day
Time
Channel
2/9/2011
10 p.m.
PBS 6
2/10/2011
3 a.m.
PBS 6
2/22/2011
8 p.m.
PBS 6
2/23/2011
1 a.m.
PBS 6
9/21/2011
9 p.m.
PBS 6
9/22/2011
2 a.m.
PBS 6
9/25/2011
5 p.m.
PBS 6
5/2/2012
9 p.m.
PBS 6
5/3/2012
2 a.m.
PBS 6
5/6/2012
5 p.m.
PBS 6
3/20/2013
9 p.m.
PBS 6
3/21/2013
2 a.m.
PBS 6
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