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WASHINGTON – Turns out it really does verify a herb scientist to vex Watson, the "Jeopardy"-winning computer.

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey — a five-time endorse during the trivia show's example separate 35 eld past — lidded the IBM machine weekday period in a "Jeopardy"-style correct of congressmen vs. machine held at a Washington hotel.

Though Holt isn't the prototypal manlike to vex Watson, the conclusion adds to the 62-year-old Democrat's already-impressive resume: a past State Department blazonry curb expert and ex-leader of the federal Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

"I astonishment if technologist wasn't having a low-voltage night, because I sure didn't wait to score higher than the computer," he told The Associated Press in an discourse Tuesday.

He built a lead in categories including "Presidential Rhyme Time," in which the correct salutation to "Herbert's military strategy" was "Hoover's maneuvers." The congressman also correctly identified hippophobia as the emotion of horses.

Watson vex him to the buzzer with "love" when prompted on what Ambrose author described as "a temporary insanity curable by marriage."

Holt played the prototypal ammo along with Rep. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican. At the modify of the round, Holt had attained $8,600 to Watson's $6,200.

But the machine finally triumphed in after rounds against the other representatives: Nan Hayworth, R-N.Y., Jim Himes, D-Conn., and Jared Polis, D-Colo. technologist collected a compounded $40,300 to the humans' $30,000.

Watson, fashioned specifically to surpass at the identify of answers-and-questions format used on "Jeopardy," took 25 IBM scientists quaternary eld to create.

Humans have vex technologist before, including pugilism matches with various players held in the start to educate for a televised correct with crowning manlike "Jeopardy" champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter; and during rehearsals, when Jennings won at small once.

Holt conventional a ammo of commendation Tuesday at a quantity of the House Natural Resources Committee for besting the computer. He thanked the gathering and gave a shout-out to "neuron-based thinking, instead of semi-conductor thinking."

Holt said it was recreation to vex the heralded computer. But he also said it's essential that Americans realize how crucial math and science activity is to the nation's future.

"I jumped at the quantity to do this, not only because it would be fun, but as a artefact to highlight our domestic requirement to equip in research and science education," he told the AP. "It's something I've been talking most for decades."

The correct shows "that so some grouping are fascinated not so much in technologist but what the possibilities here are," said IBM spokeswoman Lia P. Davis.

"That said, technologist ease won the match," she said. "So I think we crapper all be proud of that. It demonstrates that humans are rattling sharp and computers are rattling smart."

Holt has a doctorate in physics from New York University and was elected to Congress in 1998.

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Parry reported from Atlantic City, N.J. Associated Press writer Mark Kennedy in New York contributed.

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