Not sure if people remember Watson, the $3m IBM machine that was built to 'think' like a human - cognitive reasoning and unrivalled processing capacity all trapped inside a box...
It's also the brains behind the Big Blue IBM machine that beat Kasparov at chess. If you don't know Kasparov, I'd suggest you google him.
In any case, this level of computing was something at the time, far out of the reach of many organisations large and small. However a tide is shifting and with further developments in cloud computing and more and more information available online, the time was right for Watson to get amongst it.
What's on offer is a distributive type of service where IBM is looking for apps/projects to get involved in and as much as I may have been against the might of software giants fighting against the little guys, I'm not against it when they do so in such as a way as to move away from traditional norms of expensive software, long build cycles and limited access.
IBM has already started recruiting companies to take part in their
Built in the background of all this are certain API components that give rise to the level of smarts you see above.
Some such as Trade-Off Analytics give users quick ability to analyse static datasets
Or how about this demo which makes conversational computing a reality like in this healthcare example - https://watsonhealthqa.mybluemix.net/
Traditionally, any kind of querying of data has involved either visually looking at data as a table or as a chart or digging into it manually. Improvements have been made over time to codify and further automate the process however the process for users has always been about knowing how to use certain systems. These systems have been getting easier and easier to use but what better way to do this than what Watson is doing.
In the above example, I can search as if I am asking a question.... eg 'what are the causes of the common cold?', or 'how do I know if I have food poisoning?'
Watson reviews what you've typed based on speech software and then looks into it's vast database to find answers and not only that, it also gives a level of confidence to those answers as well.
It's been a while since I'd heard of Watson but I'm glad they're making a comeback and doing so in a manner that is more reachable than anything IBM-like I thought would ever be.
Stay tuned for more updates as I investigate this further, could useful in what I or many others involved in the analytics space do going forward.
