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So instead of ending up with a malfunctioning killer AI army that tech mavens are horrified about, IBM is betting research money on making its most recent well-known supercomputer, Watson, a fantasy sports manager. You know, the "Jeopardy!" winner, the one that's also going to be a sleuthy doctor's assistant soon.
IBM announced in a statement today that it's partnering up Watson's ecosystem with Edge Up Sports to help fantasy football coaches optimize their teams.
"Successful fantasy owners dedicate several hours per week strategizing for fantasy football. Still, with so much information available, it's difficult to stay current on the latest news and information surrounding players," the statement read.
And it looks like Watson is going to trawl through a lot of real-time updates and tweets to advise fantasy football coaches how they'd like to up their game.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @02:08PM
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Thursday August 13 2015, @02:13PM
It's not even proper football, it's that american crap where they never actually use their foot, and stop for 20 minutes every 5 minutes
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 13 2015, @02:34PM
Oh, but they are using their foot.
In their case, it's the body extremity protected by the helmet and it used in the most strenuous way possible in their attempt to sprain it and get knocked out in the process; most of the time, they succeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Thursday August 13 2015, @02:35PM
They do actually use their foot a few times during the game (kickoff, which is the start of each quarter, and kicking field goals is allowed; but certainly not enough to justify calling the game "foot"ball), but you've got the timing wrong: There's usually about 20 to 40 seconds of action, followed by between 1 and 3 minutes of fucking around and getting the players back into position. Which is why a game clock of 60 minutes takes a wall time of 3+ hours. I have no idea why people consider watching it to be "entertainment".
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday August 13 2015, @05:33PM
Make that less than 10 seconds of action (100 yards field, only a punt return takes more than 10s).
Then they can take about 30 seconds to reset, but they mostly just stand there while their paycheck get padded by 5 minutes of ads.
The average "playing time" (as other sports would define it) is about 11 minutes.
You have to be born with it, I guess.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Friday August 14 2015, @12:04AM
That is why it is so popular in America.
60 seconds of action, then lets take a break. I need a beer and a hot dog.
Now Football/Soccer is just too intense for Americans. I get tired even watching the crowds jumping and cheering for the entire match! Where is my beer?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2015, @02:58PM
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday August 13 2015, @03:29PM
The name makes it a bit odd. It's called football but there are only one or two people per team that are actually allowed to touch the ball with their feet (kicker and punter, I could be wrong -- I'm not really a fan this is just how much I have been able to notice when I attended a few games). On the other hand if they called it Handball it would be just as odd since that already exists as a sport to, I don't know how common it is in the USA but it's fairly common in northern Europe (naturally it's way behind actual football or soccer and icehockey but it still pulling respectable spectator numbers). It might have made more sense if they had just called it American style Rugby.
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Thursday August 13 2015, @03:55PM
American style Rugby
Except that in proper rugby they wear very little protection. In this american sport, they have so much protection, it's silly.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Friday August 14 2015, @12:11AM
Considering the bubble most children now live in, it's the most American sport there is.
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(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Friday August 14 2015, @03:00AM
I disagree. It effectively lets end lusers act like general managers and coaches. Don't you have those in rectangular kickball?
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