IBM Offers ‘Jeopardy’ Winner Watson as Cloud Application Tool

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-11-14/ibm-offers-jeopardy-winner-watson-as-cloud-application-tool

by kojoman • 13 years ago

50 15 13 years ago

jon-wood• 13 years ago

It all depends on just how the API works, but this has potential to be huge for IBM.

Done right they could be sitting on the mythical Star Trek computer here, being trained by paying customers in how to answer questions about a wide range of industries.

Just off the top of my head I can think of a ton of features in our application which could be enhanced with access to a computer that has been primed with the accumulated knowledge of the Internet.

shubb• 13 years ago

IBM / Gartner call Watson type tech 'Smart Machines'. They extend that definition out to things like HP Autonomy, Google, and other systems that integrate huge amounts of data in order to make decisions that seem almost inteligent.

The message is that 'this is the next step in / new Big Data'. Huge companies that spend loads on R&D have amassed a base of proprietary technologies which provide them a real competitive advantage.

Like bioinformatics, jet packs, and (well hell, big data), I'd say the vision (presented as current reality) is probably far ahead of what will be possible in reality in the next 10 years.

Clearly, Watson was able to answer structured questions it had been specifically prepared for, with a certain amount of pre-work done parsing the problem to get it into an easily computer solvable form.

This not the startrek computer, which can answer any questions. It needs a programmer to show it how to answer each specific type of question.

But it is cool. The majority of knowledge still lives in word docs and power points, in spoken meetings and peoples heads. If this developing set of technologies allows us to work with that amorphous info bulk, even in a simple way, you can see the potential for humand development.

draugadrotten• 13 years ago

Oh if only Apple could license Watson to replace Siri.

tluyben2• 13 years ago

It says 'offers' so that's current right? Where do I sign up?

SchizoDuckie2• 13 years ago

App DevelopersApplication developers, from startups to established businesses, can submit their requests to use Watson’s services on IBM’s website beginning this week, said Lori Bosio, a spokeswoman for the company.

There are no upfront cost for access and partners who use the service in their apps will be charged on a metered usage model, Gold said. He declined to comment on expected sales from the service.

SchizoDuckie2• 13 years ago

App Developers

Application developers, from startups to established businesses, can submit their requests to use Watson’s services on IBM’s website beginning this week, said Lori Bosio, a spokeswoman for the company.

There are no upfront cost for access and partners who use the service in their apps will be charged on a metered usage model, Gold said. He declined to comment on expected sales from the service.

JoachimSchipper• 13 years ago

Start at http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/getting_started.s..., which is pretty easy to find from a search for "watson ibm request".

JunkDNA• 13 years ago

There is so much marketing around Watson and so little data. I feel like a broken record every time this comes up, but where are the peer-reviewed research papers with data showing Watson's superior utility in real world settings like hospitals?

lincolnq• 13 years ago

I don't quite understand why you're demanding this. As I see it, Watson is still pretty experimental and we're probably still learning what kind of stuff it's good or bad at. Why not build a few apps, throw it at hospitals or schools or other use cases, and see whether it actually helps anyone?

Basically, I feel like you're asking for peer-reviewed papers that show that Dropbox is a good way to share files. Nobody would write a paper about that. They would just try Dropbox.

willis77• 13 years ago

A lot of the hype has been around using Watson as a medical decision support system, so yes, they do need peer-reviewed papers before "throwing it at hospitals". In medicine, you can't "see if it helps" without a controlled experiment. It's just too subtle to see when it's not helping, and also too late.

codingdave• 13 years ago

Why do you expect IBM to hold back on marketing a product until someone has produced peer-reviewed research papers?

Watson IS marketing. Always has been. It is a way to show off IBM's capabilities, in order to improve their brand and their bottom line. So now they are trying to monetize it as a product. If it has some academic interest, that is just an added bonus, but not its core purpose.

This is just business in the corporate world, and there is no expectation of peer-reviewed research when selling software products.

brianbreslin• 13 years ago

Can I use Watson cloud to compete on Jeopardy or other gameshows? build it into a google glass app or something?

hershel• 13 years ago

I wonder if they open this for applications that help software developers and engineers or leave it closed because of their main consulting business?

But anyways, it could be really useful in consumer healthcare, especially considering the low usage of consumer healthcare among older people[1].

[1]Only 30% of 50+ people and 13% of 65+ people, use internet to help in medical diagnosis

jmsduran• 13 years ago

As a former IBM'er, I can't help but view this announcement with a fair bit of skepticism.

The IBM I used to know had a tendency to tightly couple all of their products and offerings, to the point of making it uncompetitive/unattractive in the market. This makes sense when you consider that IBM has been going through 6 straight quarters of declining revenue, and their Systems & Technology Group being unable to turn a profit despite thousands of employee layoffs. Assuming this announcement is no different, I expect this new offering to be proprietary, SAAS-like, and rife with restrictions limiting application development to an IBM-approved stack (Rational, Jazz, DB2, etc).

I have no doubt that Watson is an excellent piece of technology, but I believe IBM's executive and CEO leadership will mess this up by treating this offering the same way as their consulting and hardware services.

IBM Offers ‘Jeopardy’ Winner Watson as Cloud Application Tool

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