Watson has been a naughty computer

IBM’s American super computer “Watson” discovered Urban Dictionary recently. As a result he had to be censored.

According to Eric Brown, an IBM research assistant and the “brains” behind Watson, he and his 35-person team wanted to get IBM’s supercomputer to sound more like a real human. In Brown’s mind, what better way to learn the intricacies of informal human communication and conversation than having Watson memorize the Urban Dictionary?

Such actions have their consequences.

Watson may have learned the Urban Dictionary, but it never learned the all-important axiom, “There’s a time and a place for everything.” Watson simply couldn’t distinguish polite discourse from profanity.

Just like a true American. 😀