Recommendations Report: IBM’s Watson

One of the hottest topics that modern science has been focusing on for a long time is the field of artificial intelligence, the study of intelligence in machines or, according to Minsky, “the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men”.(qtd in Copeland 1). Artificial Intelligence has a lot of applications and is used in many areas. “We often don’t notice it but AI is all around us. It is present in computer games, in the cruise control in our cars and the servers that route our email.” (BBC 1). Different goals have been set for the science of Artificial Intelligence, but according to Whitby the most mentioned idea about the goal of AI is provided by the Turing Test. This test is also called the

Work done with the thought of an artificial intelligence so advanced that is could converse and have emotions just as we do is nothing but disturbing. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the creators of Google, are quoted in Carr’s article stating, “The ultimate search engine is something as smart as people-- or smarter.” Pages also says “For us, working on search is a way to work on artificial intelligence.” For me this thought is scary. As much as I use and appreciate the ease of the internet, it makes me scared for the future in which my children will live in and how badly things could take a turn for the worse. All we can do is hope that our predecessors are smart enough to know when enough is enough, and the young people who are growing up in its world will be able to expand it in a healthy and helpful

The essay “Watson Doesn’t Know It Won on Jeopardy!” is a paper written by John Searle on February 23, 2011 that probes at how IBM’s computer Watson has no human understanding whatsoever. Searle begins by clearing up the common misconceptions about what a computer actually is. Searle explains that a computer is simply a machine that manipulates symbols based on a programs needs and wants, and that the computational power of a computer is not human understanding; it is in fact a measure of how fast a computer can manipulate symbols. Searle then proceeds to explain the process of how a computer works in terms of a human. He explains that a computer does not understand human language at all. A computer just has a program (in binary) that tells

IBM invests 6% of its revenue, $6.3 billion every year in Research & Development, standing at 16th position among the 20 most innovative companies in the world. (IBM Facebook, 2014)

Society today is greatly influenced by technology and the impact it has had within the past 20 years. One of the largest breakthroughs, though, is Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). The technology associated with A.I. has greatly developed in the past years, and is only making devices smarter. When someone mentions technology, or even the technological breakthroughs the world has gone through recently, many people go straight to smartphones and computers. A.I. is often overlooked, or put into a general category of "technology". Yet, artificial intelligence is something that should we not be so quick to dismiss, and should be something that gets people talking and even excited for what the future holds.

The article “What Did Watson the Computer Do?” explores the defining abilities of Watson by comparing human cognitive traits to that of Watson. Although Fish’s argument may be biased and his explanations overlook a variety of factors, he

At the time, Watson was one of the most advanced forms of artificial intelligence. It possessed the ability to understand questions being asked in the natural English language. Just because it has the capability of using this function does not mean that the computer is perfect. There are still flaws in the machine. Though Watson won this game by a great deal of money, the machine still missed the final question.

I do feel that playing jeopardy was a good way to test the machine intelligence because it allowed you to see how fast the computer processed information as well as the advantages of using a computer. No matter how smart a human being is a computer will always have an advantage because of the amount of data it can store in his memory. This experiment allowed you to see that information can be programmed into a mainframe of a computer and it can filter through that information in a matter of seconds versus a human being. Human beings will eventually suffer information overload will could lead to mistakes. Computers only enhance what a human being is capable of doing and while people feel they are here to replace humans beings they will always have flaws or inadequacies that makes that impossible. The computer not being able to respond as fast shows one of these flaws. If you think about all the attempts to send a man to the moon it was because of the calculations being off, a human being had to double check those calculations. Yes, they do enhance but for this reason, they

IBM is among the oldest of the Fortune 500 companies with operations all over the world. The company is renowned for its capacity to transform careers and deliver innovative technologies and business solutions. Over the past decade IBM has undergone a transformation of its own as it shifts from hardware development to cloud computing and business consulting. The company sees this niche market as having huge potential to carry it forward into the ensuing decades.

The concept of artificial intelligence was first labeled by a man named Alan Turing in 1950, he believed that the future would hold the possibility for man to communicate with computers and sustain a conversation (Atkinson, Solar 1). Although, we have reached the point where it is possible to hold a simple preprogrammed conversation with a computer and give them the ability to learn, there is still a long way to go in making computers fully artificially intelligent. Atkinson and Solar continue to describe some real world applications of artificial intelligence such as, “Data mining technologies, fraud detection, and industrial-strength optimization” (8). In these examples, forms of artificial intelligence like cognitive reasoning abilities are already being used making the demand for them higher.

IBM needs to grow revenue and stay competitive in the dynamically changing computer marketplace of the 1990’s by maintaining technological leadership and accepting the organizational transformation which needs to be undertaken for them to excel. IBM needs to recapture their previously held powerful position in the personal computer and microprocessor markets and regain value in the company which will increase its stock value and competitive advantage in the marketplace.

The beginning of Watsons career is a little more familiar to people than they realize. IBM research developed Watson to compete on a well-known TV game show. Watson competed as a contestant on Jeopardy. It took a team of twenty researchers and three years to get Watson to the desired level of human expertise. Researchers capitalized of the knowledge they gained from Jeopardy and altered Watson to be even smarter. The researchers created all the necessary functions in Watson to alter research methods in such a way the human race has never been exposed to. Watson can be used in research of medical and business knowledge. Watson can even answer basic everyday questions like those we have in day-to-day conversations. Watson doesn’t just take in information in English but explores document in numerous languages. The increasingly important urge to create a computer system that could hold and comprehend the more broad area of relevance. Computers before Watson have had the ability to research documents using key words or by popularity. This poses a problem when the topic of discussion is not popular. Now the IBM system Watson can be used to make important decisions in many career fields with a limited time frame. Jeopardy requires contestants to compete quickly and accurately in a non-perfect environment. The complexity of a computer system playing Jeopardy lies within the ability to risk answering incorrectly or to not answer at all. This skill takes precision and

IBM has weaknesses in the transformation of its business model. It is lack of flexibility in the transition because of its large company

Artificial Intelligence is a topic within the public media that has existed for decades, but is now a concern due to the reality of human advancement and innovation in the field of science and technology. Many people believe that computers will become self-aware or sentient and view humanity as a disposable resource and gain supremacy. Reasoning that research on the technology should halt and not become more advance. Whereas others believe they will help catapult research and the economy forward, supporting the operations and innovations the technology offers. The complicated and divided solutions to the debate aren’t obvious, but there are more benefits to improving artificial intelligence than there is stopping it. Therefore, the negative effects people believe will occur can be resolved.

Over the past five years, IBM has quietly transformed itself into a "software, solution and services" company. With the transformation from a hardware vendor to a solution provider, it has entered the area of consulting services.