World Vision wins on ‘Jeopardy!’

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. (ABP) — A Christian relief organization won big in a man-versus-machine contest pitting a computer against two human champions on the TV game show Jeopardy!

Watson, the computer designed to rival a human's ability to answer questions posed in natural language with speed, accuracy and confidence, trounced celebrated returning champions Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings in programs aired on consecutive nights Feb. 14-16. 

For the win, IMB pledged to donate $1 million in prize money to charity. Half goes to the World Community Grid, a huge volunteer computer network dedicated to humanitarian scientific work. The other $500,000 goes to World Vision, a relief-and-development organization that helps children and communities worldwide by addressing the causes of poverty.

It's an honor and a privilege to be a part of this exciting event in IBM's history," Caroline Riseboro of World Vision Canada said in a press release. "IBM leads in the areas of technology and innovation, and we hope we can together continue to make a tangible difference in lives of children all over the world."

Past links to Jeopardy! include trips by Canadian-born host Alex Trebek who traveled with World Vision Canada in 2002 to Uganda. Since then he has remained involved in World Vision and often appears on the organization's television shows.

The two losers also planned to donate half of their winnings to charity. Jennings, who broke the record for 74 consecutive Jeopardy! wins in 2004-2005, planned to donate $150,000 of the $300,000 he received for finishing second to VillageReach, a charity that works to improve the quality and reach of healthcare in the developing world.

Rutter, who won $3.2 million, the show's highest cumulative amount, received $200,000 for coming in third. The Lancaster County Community Foundation in Pennsylvania will get $100,000 of the prize.

The Jeopardy! payday comes on the heels of some negative publicity for World Vision. After the NFL donated 100,000 pieces of clothing pre-printed T-shirts labeling the losing Pittsburgh Steelers as Super Bowl champions, a World Vision press release listed their value at $2 million. Critics said it would cost more to ship the items than it would cost to purchase them locally.

Laura Seay, an assistant professor at Morehouse College who specializes in African and international affairs, called the T-shirts "bad aid."

"We know that gift-in-kind items like clothing that are readily available in a country undermine local clothing markets, create dependence, and deprive poor people of work and the dignity work provides," she wrote in a blog.

She called it "unnecessary aid," because there aren't many places in the world where T-shirts are not available and affordable, yet the NFL gets to claim tax benefits and it adds to World Vision's bottom line.

World Vision defended its gift-in-kind policy as "a nuanced conditional strategic use of product in appropriate contexts."

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.