Critique of Stanley Fishs Article Essay - 639 Words

A Critique of Stanley Fish’s â€Å"What Did Watson the Computer Do?† Zaw Phyo Ohlone College A Critique of Stanley Fish’s â€Å"What Did Watson the Computer Do?† In the fascinating game of â€Å"Jeopardy!† played in 2011, the end product resulting from decades of research and innovation was unveiled. This artificial intelligence system, named Watson, was able to answer questions by detecting keywords in the question, checking with its vast data base, and giving the most probable answer to the questions asked. Watson competed with previous winners of the game show, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. The overall score was divided into two different games in which Watson soundly beat the two competitors to win the first prize of $1 million. In 2011,†¦show more content†¦In an effort to prove that computers will never evolve into systems similar to human, Fish (2011) also presents an illogical argument that men will never be able to create a machine that is comparable to mankind, which is a paradox in itself as he tries to prove mankind’s superiority by assuming a limited the scope of man’s intelligence in creating comple x machines with cognitive abilities. Furthermore, Fish presented some of his arguments unfairly by ignoring certain advantages of artificial intelligence altogether. Fish (2011) asserts that the impressive achievement of creating Watson cannot compare to the achievement by the human thought. On the contrary, I disagree with such an assertion because beating two considerably smart men on a quiz game clearly suggests that Watson is more efficient in some way or another. Moreover, systems similar to Watson have been used in the medical field to diagnose certain diseases and generate diagnosis. In this case, computational skill of the robot, thoughtless as it may be, is achieving with more efficiency manual work that would otherwise be done with the human thought. The article â€Å"What Did Watson the Computer Do?† explores the defining abilities of Watson by comparing human cognitive traits to that of Watson. Although Fish’s argument may be biased and his explanations overlook a variety of factors, heShow Mor eRelatedEssay about Teaching and Learning in a Networked Composition Classroom5669 Words   |  23 Pagescreative and adaptive abilities of the instructor, or â€Å"humanware1† —becomes an increasingly vital aspect of computerized pedagogy, especially as the power of hardware and software becomes more pervasive and perhaps threatening. Reams of books and articles published during the last two decades2 testify forcefully of the controversy raging over the impact, both positive and negative, that the infusion of new technology into the classroom is having upon the way students learn and teachers teach. Ultimately