IBM Watson
It’s Time to Catch Up and Deliver Customers the Shopping Experience They Want
The trend of “uberization” or industry disruption, a dominant concern of the C-suite this year, has extended beyond the corner office into what customers’ expect of their brick and click shopping experience. A new IBM study finds retailers’ strategies to innovate and meet those expectations are not keeping pace. The IBM 2016 Customer Experience Index […]
Extending Game-Based AI Research into the Wild
A few days from now, Google’s AlphaGo artificial intelligence (AI) program will take on one of the world’s greatest Go players, South Korea’s Lee Se-Dol, in a live-streamed, five-day match in what’s considered to be the most difficult board game for computers. As researchers who have worked extensively with games, we are excited to see […]
A Data Revolution for Healthcare is Here
For many people today, health is something you think about when you go in for check-ups or treatments. Your doctor has your clinical history and runs tests, but her understanding of your health is basically limited to what happens and what you discuss while you are there. And somewhere you know that researchers are making […]
Night Terror: Let’s Put the Spotlight on Sleep Health
It’s often said that sleep apnea is a silent killer, and, for my family, the side effects have been devastating. My father had triple-bypass surgery at age 38, later got vascular dementia, and died at age 62. His father died of heart disease in his 60s. My other grandfather died of a heart attack at […]
A Critical Role for Hardware in the Era of Cognitive Business
In the last few months, I’ve witnessed the beginning of a sea change in the way people at the forefront of computer science think about the future of our field. Faculty members at universities are showing a keen interest in cognitive systems. And I’m not talking just about algorithms and software. They want to discuss […]
How Technology Levels the Playing Field for the Blind
Ever since Thomas Panek learned at age 20 that he would lose his eyesight due to a condition called retinal degeneration, he vowed that his disability would not prevent him from living a full life. “I wanted to do everything that sighted people do,” he says. He has not let himself down: In addition to […]
Reinventing Securities Trading with Blockchain
Unlike some of my colleagues in our banking and financial markets teams, I’m no securities expert, but I’ve learned more about securities trading in the past six months than I ever would have thought possible. That’s because I spend many hours on the phone each week with leaders from securities exchanges and financial services companies […]
IBM’s Watson: Helping Sports Teams Make Talent Decisions
It is June and the the NBA’s draft looms large. The management and coaching staff of the Toronto Raptors gathers to consider potential draft picks and possible trade scenarios. Their strategy is to select players who will form a cohesive unit. No prima donnas. In the past, the staff would have gathered in a room […]
IBM and The Weather Company: An IoT Platform for Enterprises
When IBM announced last October that we were going to buy The Weather Company’s product and technology businesses, reactions were all over the map—from “IBM’s buying a TV station,” (not true), to “IBM is buying into cloud computing,” (not necessary; already there in a big way), to “Watson is going to predict weather,” (sort of). […]
The Next Grand Challenge: Computers That Converse Like People
Computer scientists have long dreamed of creating machines that can carry on free-wheeling conversations with people. So far, in spite of tremendous efforts in the field of speech recognition, natural language processing and other facets of artificial intelligence, even the most loquacious computers and smartphones are not yet great conversationalists. But that may change in […]
Inside IBM: The Inventors Who Are Creating the Era of Cognitive Computing
How many times have you been raving about a great movie and, suddenly, you draw a blank on the star actor’s name? Don’t worry, it happens to everybody. Well, in the not-too-distant future, when you get hung up, you may get a timely assist from a computer—one smart enough to complete your sentences for you. […]
IBM’s Cognitive Computing Innovation Surges
IBM’s work in cognitive computing emerged as a major factor among the patents awarded to the company by the US. Patent and Trademark Office. More than 800 of IBM’s 7,355 2015 patents are related to cognitive computing, a 52% increase from the previous year. Last year, IBM announced that it has realigned its entire business […]