The Yale Law Journal

Betsy Cooper

Forum

Judges in Jeopardy!: Could IBM’s Watson Beat Courts at Their Own Game?

Betsy Cooper

Introduction

February 16, 2011 was a day of reckoning for humankind. A new computer, appropriately dubbed “Watson,” beat the world’s best Jeopardy! players at their own game. At first blush this may not seem so surprising: after all, computers are notoriously better than humans at “recalling” factu…