Kenison GarrattStaff Writer
IBM has just released
its improved Watson cognitive technology program. Watson, named after IBM
founder Thomas J. Watson, processes information as a person would, rather than
as a computer. Watson can read and understand natural language, learning as it
goes and developing hypotheses based on information that is provided. Watson
gains knowledge by being taught by users, from prior interactions, and by being
presented with new information. Watson actually gets smarter with each use
since it learns by tracking feedback from its users’ successes or failures. IBM
describes this as the first step in a new era of computing technology,
explaining that, “It uses programmatic computing plus the combination of three
additional capabilities that make Watson truly unique: natural language
processing, hypothesis generation and evaluation, and dynamic learning.” Also,
it is moving from keyword based searches to more conversational methods for
users to uncover new information.
In February of 2011,
Watson won in a Jeopardy! Challenge. During this period of time it was
not connected to the Internet and had to rely on what information it had previously
gathered and stored. Using statistical analysis to narrow down possible
answers, Watson then chose the most accurate one. Watson correctly answered
questions that were posed in slang or included puns.
Aside from game shows,
Watson will also help out in a hospital setting. “Watson becomes the assistant to the physician,
helping them uncover and discover new possibilities locked away in the
information, and I think that’s the game changer,” says Steve Gold, chief
marketing officer of IBM’s Watson Group. Watson helps to catch dynamics of a
patient’s health that physicians may have missed. It assesses symptoms, gives a
diagnosis and suggests treatments.
Since
winning the Jeopardy! Challenge in
2011, IBM has been working tirelessly on innovating Watson. In May of 2013, the
Watson Engagement Advisor was launched so that businesses would be able to have
more in depth interactions with their customers. Watson allows faster answers
through online chat sessions. In November of 2013 it was announced that IBM
would be allowing Watson to be used as a development platform in the cloud,
meaning that apps could now incorporate this cognitive computing technology. In
January of this year the new Watson Group was established. In August, an
important advancement was announced; Watson can now accelerate the speed at
which it can answer questions, even questions without known answers.
For the future of Watson, there
have been a lot of ideas. Watson is planned to be brought to the masses. There has been discussion of creating an
application to help military personnel transitioning out of service. Recently, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty was
present at the Fortune Most Powerful
Women Summit to demonstrate the upgraded Watson. Rometty mentioned that she
wants Watson to be involved in financial and retail services, in
research-oriented industries and as an advisor. Rometty added, “Watson is the beginning of a whole
series [of robots] where they learn and they reason. They will redefine the
experience between man and machine…This information is going to redefine our
jobs, our professions, education.” On the Watson Group, IBM says they will
focus on, “commercialization
of software, services and apps that think, improve by learning and discover
answers to complex questions by analyzing massive amounts of Big Data.” There
are obviously big plans ahead for this cognitive technology. IBM has truly been adhering to its motto,
THINK, which was coined by Thomas J. Watson,
who stated, “All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were
only willing to think.”
