Developed over four years at an estimated cost of more than $30 million, IBM's "Jeopardy"-playing computer, Watson, will face the quiz show's grand masters, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in two games to be aired Feb. 14, 15 and 16. As Stephen Baker relates in the following excerpt from his new book, "Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything," doubts remain about how well Watson can process the endless subtleties of human language.

Watson paused. The closest thing it had to a face, a glowing orb on...