I'm sure almost all of you heard of IBM Watson, the computer system, when it beat the two greatest human champions in Jeopardy history in 2011. Watson is a super computer that can easily answer questions presented in natural language rather than a programming language like java. It was so amazing when Watson won Jeopardy because not only did the computer need to scan immense amounts of information to quickly find the answer to every question, but it also needed to understand and answer the questions in an abnormal way to keep in line with the rules of the game. This was a huge advancement in computer programming, but playing Jeopardy isn't something that happens on a daily basis. Watson, however, has huge real life applications. Before we get more into how Watson is being used, let's talk about how it works for a second.
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| Watson winning Jeopardy. This picture shows Watson's "thought process" with the confidence ratings |
As I mentioned before, Watson can understand natural language, and this is one of the reasons why it is so smart. A typical search engine takes keywords, finds documents containing the keyword, and sorts them in order of relevance, usually based on popularity. Watson, on the other hand, can understand the question in much greater detail to return a more precise answer. Watson instantly scans a 15-terabyte data bank of human knowledge, finds the relevant information, decides on an answer, and when it reaches a level of confidence, presents its answer in natural language. This is pretty much what our brains do, but Watson can store much more information and can complete the process much faster. That is why it is being used in the medical field to treat patients.
One of the most fascinating applications of Watson is in the medical world, particularly in oncology. Watson helps medical professionals make more informed decisions about treatment plans. Using the same process Watson used to win Jeopardy, it scans the analysis the patients' medical records, huge medical databases to find potential evidence-based treatment options, and produces suggestions for treatment with ratings of how confident it is that the treatment would work. Watson has the potential to give better treatments to people while also seeing more clients in a shorter period of time. This is only one of the amazing uses for Watson in our world. I can't wait to see what it can be used for next!
http://www.govtech.com/health/IBMs-Watson-Broadens-Cancer-Crusade.html
https://www.cnet.com/news/ibms-watson-may-provide-a-shortcut-to-treating-cancer/
http://blog.fashionsealhealthcare.com/ibm-watson-impacting-healthcare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_(computer)#Software
I've always been fascinated by what IBM shows of Watson in their television ads. My question is if Watson is a type of software or a physical computer that can be bought, and how accessible it is?
ReplyDeleteWow this is incredible! But also a little unsettling. I think that if artificial intelligence starts to become too intelligent, it could threaten the safety of humans. In that vein, does IBM still work constantly to improve Watson, or is it in its final form? Thanks!
ReplyDeletePretty crazy that computers are becoming smarter than humans! Reading about stuff like this makes me think that computers might become so powerful that they just take over! But, it's also really cool that people are able to create things like this that can help other people in an even more effective way than humans can! I can't wait to see what they discover next!
ReplyDeleteThis is really incredible and scary at the same time,because computers apparently became smarter than humans which might make them want to throw us out.Nevertheless,we should seriously consider that as a serious topic and start thinking about way to ensure security for our next generations while optimizing the usage of every intelligence available to us
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