If you enjoyed seeing Watson on TV or YouTube and want to know more about it, you will definitely like the book Final Jeopardy. As you can see from all the 5-star reviews, this book is very engrossing, with a lot of information you can’t find anywhere else.

The book is a fun read that explains the AI aspects very intuitively while also detailing the human drama of developing Watson. The author entertains with insider surprises throughout the book, such as IBM’s temporary fear that it would look foolish on national television if a hacker in a garage could build something comparable to Watson.

Though Watson’s “secret sauce” will remain an IBM secret, the book does a lot to explain the basics of how Watson operates and the potential applications of such technology. As the book demonstrates, a lot of trial-and-error was required to go from academic research to developing Watson. I also enjoyed seeing formal AI concepts explained very intuitively, such as seeing ontologies likened to “cheat sheets.”

At $9.99 for the Kindle edition, I think it’s a bargain. Not only is the book a thrill to read, it is more informative than expensive academic books (which notoriously overfocus on details while missing the bigger picture). For those wanting more technical details about Watson, the bibliography includes an article by IBM’s David Ferrucci and other team members: “Building Watson: An Overview of the DeepQA Project.” This article, which you can read on the web, is easier to understand once you read the book.