IBM creating pocket-sized Watson in $16 billion sales push
August 28, 2012
(Credit: IBM)
IBM researchers are working on incorporating Watson capabilities in smart phones, Bloomberg Business Week reports.
Bernie Meyerson, IBM’s vice president of innovation, envisions a voice-activated Watson that answers questions, like a supercharged version of Apple’s Siri personal assistant. A farmer could stand in a field and ask his phone, “When should I plant my corn?” He would get a reply in seconds, based on location data, historical trends and scientific studies.
Finding additional uses for Watson is part of IBM’s plan to tap new markets and boost revenue from business analytics to $16 billion by 2015.
Watson 2.0
The next version, dubbed “Watson 2.0,” would be energy- efficient enough to work on smartphones and tablets.
The challenge for IBM is overcoming the technical obstacles to making Watson a handheld product, and figuring out how to price and deliver it. Watson’s nerve center is 10 racks of IBM Power750 servers running in Yorktown Heights, New York, that have the same processing power as 6,000 desktop computers. Even though most of the computations occur at the data center, a Watson smartphone application would still consume too much server power for it to be practical today.
It also takes a while for Watson to do the “machine learning” necessary to become a reliable assistant in an area. Researchers also need to add voice and image recognition to the service so that it can respond to real-world input, said Katharine Frase, vice president of industry research at Armonk, New York-based IBM.
With Watson, IBM aims to tackle more complex questions than Apple’s Siri. The program will be able to understand oncology well enough to advise doctors on diagnosis and prescriptions, said Martin Kohn, IBM’s chief medical scientist. One iPad application for Watson — a health-care program developed with a Columbia University professor — is being used to demonstrate its medical capabilities for prospective IBM customers.
As the technology is improved, a mobile Watson could become an extension of services that IBM already offers to business customers such as WellPoint, the second-biggest U.S. health insurer. The move fits into a broader push to promote analytics software, which helps customers diagnose problems and spot patterns in everything from infant mortality to South American floods. IBM agreed to buy Kenexa Corp. for about $1.3 billion yesterday as part of the effort.
In one potential scenario, a patient accesses Watson via a mobile device to explain symptoms in natural language. The person then gets several recommendations for what might be happening, listed in order of the computer’s confidence. The patient and a doctor both have access to Watson, which would securely access the patient’s medical records, letting it make adjustments to an answer depending on factors like pregnancy or diabetes, Kohn said.
Comments (75)
by Michael108
Siri was dating Watson, but broke it off because he was asking too many questions.
by Editor
… plus he was hanging out with Iris.
by Michael108
…obviously skilled at parallel processing ; )
by Bri
Imagine what the kids will be like! Oh well. There goes the neighborhood!
by Bri
In the recent videos section there was a great video on the Da Vinci surgical robot. Every action taking place with it is recorded in detail. A Watson style program can cull the best attributes from the every procedure. In a short time it’s visual acuity will be far better at differentiating diseased tissue from good. An autonomous robot with extreme dexterity could operate it better than the best human. After that in it’s spake time it could do data entry. It doesn’t need a break or vacation. It doesn’t care if it’s cleaning toilets! In a short time it will be able to really think like a human. No matter how much we augment our brains, if it has to go through biological circuits, it will slow to a crawl , in comparison to an optimized robot. We won’t loose all jobs to robots tomorrow. In less than twenty it could happen. What will really be interesting is how they increase productivity. They don’t waste time with small talk or any of the other things that we do, that slow down what we can accomplish in a day. No implored will be able to afford our inefficiency. They WILL be optimized to all job niches. It’s in the employers best interests to incorporate them, or else not be able to compete.
by Pejman
Thanks
by getnet
What I see is (the time needed to search facts from the google minimized + World Smart Phone Distribution Rate + Ideal People resource becouse of AI Applicaion + Emergence of New Applicaion Area + Political risc + Economic , Social, Heailthy, Education growth + Better applicaion of SmartPhone) Pushed towardes better AI Development the speed of growth become unimagenable,
by Ron Fontes
Great! Nobody needs to know nuttin’: Just stand around scratching your empty head and ask the MotherBox what to do IF you can formulate the question. And one bomb would take out the server. Whoopee! We can all be morons and just do what we’re told by Big Brother.
by Starheart
We have been replacing our memory with artificial aids since time immemorial. Your sentiment seems to stem from the fact that having potential access to knowledge does not make a person more knowledgeable until they actually absorb said knowledge into their own memory by learning. But as long as the situation keeps being as such, humans do need to have the basic framework in their memory that is required to access various encyclopaedic data and make sense of it. In short, we would not devolve into mindless creatures as long as we know what do we need to ask the machine and why. This is very much comparable to having various types of processor memory: processor cache used to control kernel memory used to access the entirety of RAM used to access hard drive storage.
Eventually, though, we might integrate central database access into a BCI. With seamless enough access, we eventually wouldn’t even know the difference between our own memories or the “motherbox”, thus preventing excessively long times spent learning, and the borders between man and machine, individual and network, would become increasingly nebulous.
by Cybernettr
I don’t see new technologies putting people out of work anytime soon, because new technologies always tend to create new jobs. The problem is that the new jobs usually seem to require more skill, more technical savvy, and more intelligence than the old ones they replace. Therefore, I see a greater and greater gap between the rich and poor, with more and more oppressive taxes being used to balance out the income discrepancies a.k.a. class warfare.
by Cybernettr
Right, and we should get rid of those lousy things called books, too, since libraries can be burned down so easily. Besides, they never seem to have the book you want when you want it, anyway.
by Bri
I wouldn’t do that anytime too soon. If we get a solar flare as bad as they have been in recorded history, our electric grid will lose ALL it’s substations. Read up on the problem. It would take years to replace them and we would be right back in the 1800s .
by Duh
Someone still has to think, find, research and ENTER the answers into the system. The software only FINDS them.
by getnet
what else the mind can do other than searching the fact,
by Brian Balke
Well, all you Luddites, all Watson can do is answer your questions. Somebody still has to do the work. I think that most MDs would prefer to work with the best diagnosis possible, as a diagnosis only defines the process to be implemented to achieve a cure.
And there will still be the edge cases that must be investigated and studied to provide the raw data for a diagnosis.
The real losers will be the TV show writers that make a pile of money on dysfunctional personalities like House. Although I’d love to see Watson suggest lupus in conference with the diagnostic team.
As regards more prosaic applications: the farmer that loves his job and is willing to work hard may actually be able to survive in competition with the large conglomerates with their massive information systems that enable them to target crops and markets with such effiicacy.
by Bri
My landlord has a house in upstate NY. The farmer next to him gives him all kinds of things. He can’t bring it to market because it’s too expensive to pick and transport!
by Alan K. Balkany
It’s interesting that virtually everyone glossed over one of the most amazing breakthroughs demonstrated by Watson: The ability to read and understand text automatically, without human intervention.
This was one of the ambitious goals of the AI project, CYC, in the 1990s, and it’s finally been achieved by Watson.
by Joseph
With Watson, I can finally realize my dream of becoming Sherlock Holmes.
by Editor
Or say “Watson, come here, I need you,” to quote Alexander Graham Bell out of context
by Bri
I bet your good at jeopardy!
by Editor
Good at putting myself IN jeopardy, maybe … :)
by Bri
Aren’t we all!!!!!
by Jimmy Corn
Why would you ask a computer where to plant corn after you’ve entered the darn field?
by kjmclark
The question was ‘when’, not ‘where’. That was a terrific question this year, and almost all farmers got it wrong one way or another. The right answer this year was *very* early, and a short-season variety. We planted ours at the normal time, which was way too late this year, and didn’t get a good stand because the rains had already stopped.
by Chrispium
Not where, but when.
by Marcos Marin
Just be glad you wont have to climb the mountain to get enough signal to the Cloud… (the servers, not heaven, lol) It is already better than cellphone signal in many cities today!
by Alan
What exactly are you talking about? The “Cloud” is not a replacement for cellphone signals, it’s a fancy marketing term for server based services that do the processing on the server and return you the result to your client device.
by Brian Roberts
I think it’s going to be longer than 2015 to get a actual working Watson in a cell-phone. Upload your question to the Watson cloud could be an option. If quantum computing, spintronics, and graphene were mainstream I think Watson in a smartphone would be in 2015.
I could see them developing a much smarter Siri then building up from there.
by bobc4012
Its not a cell phone problem, it is a server problem. First you have to “load” the data base with all the possible known answers to the world’s problems (or in this case, IF it was only handling crop plantings, all those possibilities). However, since it would be far broader than crop plantings, – i.e. for each field of endeavor, all the known knowledge for that field – each field at a time. The next step would be to build an intelligence into the system to scan for any possible connections across fields that might have some relevancy. Eventually, you would arrive at a system which has all the knowledge of the world. A considerable effort. So another step would be to have the system help “load” itself with that knowledge, still a formidable task. Remember, in the Jeopardy contest, Watson gave an occasional off the wall answer – whether it was programmed to deliberately do that (not too likely, but ???) or just wasn’t coming up with the correct correlations.
by Tushar
I don’t get it. All the app would have to do is send the query which includes some text, maybe an image and/or some audio. Data speeds are fast enough to efficiently transfer this to the Watson web service, and it can crunch and return the results. What’s so hard about this? Let Watson stay in the server rack.
by Editor
As noted, “a Watson smartphone application would still consume too much server power for it to be practical today.” (I added the word “server” to clarify that the problem is on that end).
by John B
Well, the server rack represents the processing power of a single Watson. How are you going to get this to service several million remote Watson hand-helds ?
This suggestion is less practical than developing the full blooded Watson Hand Held.
by Editor
It’s the same system concept as Siri. The system is processor-bound, not I/O-bound.
by Joey Zhou
I wholeheartedly welcome our new Watson Overlords
by Glen Lincoln
I was astonished a year and a half ago to see Watson on Jeopardy. It was that moment I realized how far we’d advanced to begin that escape curve of the singularity. I am SO disappointed with SIRI, but Watson, he’s another animal altogether. He can tutor me to learn other languages; he will access my own skills and aptitudes and guide me to pursuits that will build me up to realize my potential. Be my trainer in the gym, guide me in how to cook, teach me, and show me new ways to have fun and enjoy life more. He’ll facilitate meeting other people, as he will do for all of us, making us multiplied and empowered to cooperate for greater good. And then soon comes Watson’s even more ultra-intelligent and better version. It’s not your job you need worry about, it’s your new FAR, FAR higher standards of living you will soon be enjoying, and your new wealth of mental, physical, and emotional well-being, and the pleasures of discovering new creativity and happiness in your life.
by S0ulman
I tend to disagree Glenn. This definitely will cost jobs and you will not only have to work with the new assistants but you will have to compete with them. What happens to all the people with low education and low IQ? What happens to those whose job may be easily automated with the newer generation of robots/software? I fear Hugo de Garis visions and predictions could be more real then lots of people believe. Do you really think big corporations are interested in the happiness of our lifes?
by Dave Torgersen
… yeah, except that this is going to put every call center technician out of a job… in fact every knowledge-based worker. the same way that every manufacturing job has disappeared. The issue is that machines, of all kind, can be made to be better and more efficient than those that create them… If it is a fundamental expectation that everyone works to earn a living… will there be sufficient service-sector employment? Not sure.
by John von
Who’s going to pay for my new higher standards of living when I lose my job to Watson?
by bobc4012
John, it depends upon what is your job. If you work on an assembly line, that job is pretty much gone anyway. If you work at some type of data entry, then you will have to learn some new skills (maybe Watson can provide you a good answer and even where to move, if necessary). Or maybe it can create that Brave New World where you can spend all your time at the “feelies”.
by bobc4012
And, if you are single, even pick out the future Mrs. Lincoln for you! LOL
by Menachem Began
I hope that they don’t forget to comment-out the ‘Respond in the form of a question’ routine.
by omar
Tom Hanks should promote this.. reprise his Castaway role, instead of Wilson, we can have Watson!
by Marcos Marin
We already have more than enough lost people hysterically over-dependent on their smartphones.. it is just a matter of time until they begin screaming “Mr. WATSOOOON!” the next time they misplace it.. now that they will have a name to scream :-)
by Trismegistus
I can’t wait to talk to watson. It will be like having a (better) version of Ken Jennings in your pocket at all times!
by Darth Thinker
THE IBMPIRE STRIKES BACK
by anthrobotic
well done.
by Michael
Nice lol
by Spikosauropod
It’s almost too big a thing to wrap yourself around. The combination of this and other technologies coming over the horizon will utterly transform society. By the end of the decade, we won’t even recognize ourselves. We will no longer be laboring to convince skeptics that the Singularity is coming. Rather, we will be working overtime quelling fears of its inevitability.
by Bri
Watson! Come quickly, I need you!
by Giuseppe
I always through that IBM has the best technology in the field of the natural language understanding and in the software of man-machine interaction. This is the commercial application of the technology. I think Watson 2.0 will represent a turning point in the use of smartphone and tablet.
by Karl Haglin
When Watson goes main stream it will be like internet and mobile phones today. You will have a hard time imagining how you could lived without them.
by star0
This is great news! It will make people far more capable in their daily lives: think what it will mean for students and researchers. Think of all the times you’ve tried to look something up on the web, only to find it next to impossible to track down what you need. Think of the times you wondered about certain legal issues, only to have to read mountains of documents to get an answer. Think of all the times you wandered whether you might be a little bit sick, but decided not to go to the doctor because of the trouble and expense.
by Bri
Think of all those people out of work.
by S0ulman
fully agree – that smells like trouble. There will be winners and an awful lot of losers.
by bobc4012
Only if you ask Watson for job help and it tells you that you are a “loser” and head on down to the “Solyent Green” plant, where they have a “job” for you.
by omran al-kandari
just before few weeks i commented on utube that i wan’t my own AI in my smart phone ! yay ! but i think i have to wait a bit :D
by trakk
watson heard you…
by Mark
Oh, please, don’t ever plug Watson into YouTube comments. It would take pity on humanity and likely would work quickly to end our suffering.
by Roland
Ah, a benign version of Skynet. Before you know it robots will arriving from the future and ride around on motorcycles to do Watsons work of mercy. :)
by trakk
and we will try our best to prevent it from doing so. Humanity wont go down without a fight :)
by Frank
Why don’t they ask Watson how to overcome the technical obstacles to making Watson a handheld product, and figuring out how to price and deliver it.?
by Matthew H
Because when Watson is done they will have to build another more powerful computer to figure out what the original question to the given answer was?
Or worse, they have to pulverize it and leave it floating around in Earth orbit where it will control and manipulate use for generations to come until we become an awesome war machine bent on destroying all life in the universe.
Just saying….
by Luchian
Great! You’re THE MAN Frank! no kiddin’….
by bobc4012
Do you think you could carry the “Empire State” building in your pocket? The real work is done at the server farm, not in the hand held unit The hand held unit is nothing more than a wireless connection to the main SIRI facility – the hand held has just enough computing power to facilitate the connection. It is akin to attaching a microphone to your PC and then saying “Google” to bring up your browser with a connection to Google and then deciphering your sentence (hopefully, correctly) and doing a “Google” search and coming back with an answer (hopefully, a desired one).
by Gorden Russell
Did you read yesterday’s article (at this, the Kurzweil Newsletter),
” A chance to finish life?” It’s about a young woman dying of brain cancer. She wants to take a chance on cryonic preservation so that she may be revived when there are nano-doctors that can move along the length of a neuron to repair the damage done by freezing.
She needs $28,000 to pay for the cryonics. If only 1,400 people donate $20 apiece, she will have a hope to see the singularity.
Donate to the Venturist Cryonics Charity Fund for Kim Suozzi, checks can be mailed to:
The Society for Venturism
11255 SSR 69,
Mayer AZ, 86333,
U.S.A.
by Giulio Prisco
Off-topic here, but for a good cause, now that the article about Kim Suozzi is not shown on the front page. I will donate what I can afford, and I encourage all to donate what they can afford.
The link is here:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-chance-to-finish-life
Please follow the links on the page, and consider making a small donation. If you are reading this article hoping for an AI application running on a 600$ iPhone, think that for 3% of the price of an iPhone you can help Kim.
by Marcos Marin
You people want this audience to donate? Stop advertising as “helping Kim”, as many will no doubt, but more effectively focus their attention on the benefits to spreading transhumanist ideas on the mainstream once she is successful. Stop praying and start thinking…
by Giulio Prisco
Marcos, I hope a successful campaign will facilitate spreading transhumanist ideas on the mainstream, bu showing that we care for our own people. But at this moment, helping a living, breathing and feeling person is even more important to me.
by Daniel
Rather misleading article, the title and first line suggest that Watson will run on cell phones. Later on it shows that Watson is clearly running on servers. The vague plan seems to be an app running on cell phones that give access to Watson for a wide range of topics, but the interface is not clarified. Something like Siri seems to be what is intended, with even the voice recognition being done on the server.
by JFH
I don’t find it misleading as this is basically the same way Siri works. You have an iPhone app that works as the interface to a server based backend where all the real processing is done.
by Hoss
Now would be a good time to drop out of medical or law school before you rack up a bunch of student loans.
by Bri
Amen to that one. If your starting now, by the time you finish, Watson will have stripped away much of the lower level staff. Add a tricorder and most personal physician work will be gone too.
by bobc4012
Not if you take it a step further. Watson will tell you that a certain set on nanoprobes or nanocells or nano-whatever, need to be injected into the carotid artery and they will rush to the site to cure the problem. You will need to know how to operate the tricorder and know the injection points for the various nanoprobes. If things go bad, you could always tell the ambulance chasing lawyers to sue Watson (or have Watson defend you in court)!
by Chris
“With Watson, IBM aims to tackle more complex questions than Apple’s Siri.”
Essentially, the answers are provided by Wolfram Alpha, which itself is pretty powerful.
What would be amazing is combining Google’s Knowledge Graph (available on Android phone through Google Now) and Watson.
Also, why not have Watson hosted on a server, just like for Siri and Google Now answering mechanisms?
by Giuseppe
I always thought that IBM has the best technology in the field of natural language understanding and man-machine interaction. This is just the commercial application of the technology. I think Watson 2.0 will represent a turning point in the use of smartphones and tablet.