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But all Watson has to do is react to an electrical signal telling him when the buzzers are unlocked, which if it has already decided to answer should be an instant reflex.
For the humans there is a light that goes on to tell when the buzzers are unlocked. That unlocking is done by an assistant producer to tries to time it to Trebek finishing the question. So if the player waits until the light goes on then they're at an obvious huge disadvantage in terms of reflex.
But good players don't do that, they try to get a sense of the timing and guess when the light will come on so that they have started the press before it is actually possible to buzz in. If they time correctly it is theoretically possible they could slip into the window of whatever lag Watson has but that has to be an incredibly small opportunity. And the humans have a disadvantage that Watson doesn't, if the human guesses slightly wrong and buzzes in a microsecond early then they are locked out of buzzing in for a significant fraction of a second (that's why sometimes you see someone mashing the buzzer even when nobody else is trying).
So I don't see how, on those questions where Watson has decided it will answer it can consistently be beat to buzzing in.
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