An IBM Supercomputer is soon going to compete with the past champions of “Jeopardy!”; Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. This first ever Man Vs. Machine show is scheduled to air on February 14, 2011. This computer “Watson” is named after IBM’s founder Thomas J. Watson. Besides this machine, one more IBM machine also defeated chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.

“It’s going to be a close game,” said Ferrucci, an artificial intelligence expert who has headed the Watson project. “These guys are really good. I’m going to have to breathe deeply and count to 10 a lot.”

The competition will last for three days and the winner will receive $1 million. It will broadcast from IBM’s lab in Yorktown Heights, New York. During the competition, Watson will be given every question through a typed entry and the show host Alex Trebek will read the queries to Jennings and Rutter.

“Watson’s a big step toward artificial intelligence that directly affects people’s lives,” Paul Saffo, managing director at investment adviser Discern Analytics in San Francisco, said in an interview. “It will have the intended effect — this is going to absolutely capture people’s attention.”

Watson runs on the IBM’s Power 7 server system and was built by Ferrucci along with a team of 20 other IBM researchers.

Talking about the Watson, Ferrucci said,

“The Holy Grail here is to create a technology that can understand what you’re asking, the way you’re asking it. People want to do more with all the content we have. The machine has started to generate interest from businesses, particularly in customer support and health care,” Ferrucci said, declining to identify companies. “The company is building prototypes for specific applications, including health care, he said, noting it would probably be at least three years before such a machine was used commercially.”

IBM has reported that it will donate the winning amount of $1 million to charity, if Watson wins. Jennings and Rutter have also reported they will donate half their amount, if they win the contest.