Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Artificial Intelligence

Search engine is an internet tool built with artificial intelligence which searches the world wide web to find relevant information basing on user's input, sometimes guessing what the user wants.
I was in Hong Kong last November. It was 9 pm on a Tuesday night. I heard from the TV news there was a superjackpot of over $30 millions for Mark VI, the betting of which would close by 9:30. (Mark VI is a lottery in Hong Kong which is similar to Lotto in Australia.)
So I hastened. I scrambled through my phone books to look for the telephone number for the Telebet Centre. Things were usually not there at the time you needed them most.
At 9:15, I began to panic. I was nowhere but to resort to the internet for help. I keyed in 'Mark VI' to a search engine, hoping that it would return some relevant websites which I might find the phone number to place my bets. I forgot whether it was Google or Yahoo. Anyway I did, and guess what came back!
It returned:
'St. Mark's Gospel, Chapter Six'

"Oh no. Not at this time." I sighed. It was 9:25.

The search engine was so smart to try to stop me from plunging all my fortune in that go at the very last moments. Thank you.

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