In the 1957 movie Desk Set, brainy Katharine Hepburn trounced a version of ENIAC, the world’s first electronic general-purpose computer—she was far better than it at recalling the names of Santa’s reindeer—but since then it seems to have been all downhill for the human race.

In 1997, I.B.M.’s mathematically ept Deep Blue defeated Chess Grand Master Garry Kasparov in a landmark game of nineteen moves. (Kasparov accused his electronic opponent of cheating; Deep Blue sullenly refused a re-match.) And in 2011, I.B.M.’s supercomputer Watson defeated all-time champ Ken Jennings at Jeopardy, successfully answering knotty questions about the Beatles, the Olympics, Harry Potter, and Dracula—and, incidentally, raking in a prize pot of $3.25 million.

Watson’s specialty is answering