Who knew that generative art would be the face of a Jeopardy champ? For the Jeopardy competition in 2011 between IBM Watson and Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, IBM hired veteran digital artist Joshua Davis to create Watson’s face, a swirling electronic avatar based on IBM’s Smarter Planet logo. Davis took the globe motif and added a swarm of particles — a single “leader” chased by the others — to spin around on the globe’s surface, indicating that Watson is “thinking.” He also visually represents Watson’s level of confidence in an answer, based on complicated algorithms that boil down to 27 possible states that the avatar can be in. Generally, when Watson is confident, the particles swarm to the top of the globe and glow green; and when Watson is not confident, they flow to the bottom and glow orange.
Learn more:
- The Face of Watson (IBM India)
- Joshua Davis Creates the Face of Watson (Fast Company, Feb 2011)
- Take a Look At Watson’s Generative Art Face (Creator’s Project, Feb 2011)
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Related:
- (Replay) IBM Launches New Watson Group in Silicon Alley (Jan 13, 2014)
- Win an IBM Watson T-Shirt – Help Design the World of the Future (Dec 17, 2013)
- Are You Smarter Than Watson? Try Playing the Trivia Challenge (Oct 5, 2013)
- Watson at Your Service: IBM Unveils the IBM Watson Engagement Advisor (May 21, 2013)
- IBM’s Ginni Rometty Reveals Watson’s Future (May 21, 2013)
Originally published on The Greater IBM Connection blog Jan 2014
Julie Yamamoto 