Why Can't My Computer Understand Me?

Hector Levesque thinks his computer is stupid--and that yours is, too. Siri and Google's voice searches may be able to understand canned sentences like "What movies are showing near me at seven o'clock?," but what about questions--"Can an alligator run the hundred-metre hurdles?"--that nobody has heard before? Any ordinary adult can figure that one out. But if you type the question into Google, you get information about Florida Gators track and field. Watson, the computer system that won "Jeopardy!,"