Watson, the trusty ol' Supercomputer

[o hey tyler]

IBM - Watson

I'm traveling 2.5 hours to Massachusetts today to see Watson at a division of IBM. It's a family only event, and my father is a high-up in IBM so I get to go on his behalf. I'm really excited about it. It will probably just be a bunch of people staring at an array of server stacks, but I'm bringing my camera along for the ride. I'll be sure to post photos if I find anything of interest.

If you haven't looked at the tech behind Watson, you really should. It's amazing what the computer is capable of, but it still doesn't get everything right.

 

[Davor]

oooh i love server racks! Im in school for this type of stuff so its so exciting and lucky you

 

[SlickSalmon]

HAL-9000: What is going to happen?
Dave: Something wonderful.
HAL-9000: I'm afraid.
Dave: Don't be. We'll be together.
HAL-9000: Where will we be?
Dave: Where I am now.

 

[Trever1t]

skynet....

 

[bigtwinky]

I believe Watson is leading in the Jeopardy challenge... you will be assimilated, resistance is futile

 

[Formatted]

They were talking about a robot internet, a way for robots to share information separate to that of humans.

Thats going to end well.

 

[o hey tyler]

Here are a few photos from the event. I was under the impression that Watson was going to be there. It wasn't the case. However, it was still very interesting.

There was roughly 650 people there, ranging from current IBM employees to the Alumni. One of the designers brought the group through a powerpoint that showcased how exactly Watson extracts the right answer. He uses keywords, source reliability, and it's even been designed to recognize puns or wordplay.

The applications for Watson are endless. It could really revolutionize the medical field.

For anyone that is following, on night two of the Jeopardy challenge. The final Jeopardy category was "US Cities". The answer that both Jennings and that other guy arrived at was Chicago. Watson, for some reason guessed Toronto (and it was quite apparent with the amount of question marks). The reason that Watson guessed Toronto is because he disregards the categories that the questions are in. He was programmed to do that. The reason being is that they're often a play on words and don't necessarily provide a clue to the answer.

Anyways, here's some of the photos. The Littleton offices are AWESOME, but I was fairly restricted in terms of camera usage. I was almost not able to take photos AT ALL.

(VP of Marketing)

Completely unrelated, but I WANT THIS CAR.