IBM UK’s Head of Watson Paul Ryan explains why cognitive technology is more than hype
The chances are, you have already used some of the tools offered by IBM’s Watson without even realising it. The cognitive platform is already in use by over 6000 businesses globally; although many keep that under wraps so they can get the edge on their completion. So what is it? “Watson is a brand new kind of computing,” says Paul Ryan, UK Head of Watson at IBM.
Watson can read and really comprehend what you ask it to read. It can see, it can hear and it can converse with people in natural language.
The AI Toolkit
As the world’s first commercially available enterprise AI platform, Watson APIs are available to developers as an SDK in every major programming language including Python, Java and IOS. This enables any business to incorporate AI technology, whether that’s image recognition, natural language processing or anomaly detection, into their apps, software and decision making. The platform is self-learning, allowing it to imitate and understand patterns and behaviors the more it is used.
Much like they have in big data, IBM clearly intend to dominate the AI space and this trailblazing platform has left the competition in its wake. Beyond the gimmicky Jeopardy appearance that first put it on the map, Watson offers businesses tools that are genuinely ground breaking. Despite IBM’s long love affair with opensource and open data projects, all the insights Watson delivers remain the property of the end-user, giving piece of mind to businesses concerned their Watson-learned insights could be democratised.
While many focus on fear mongering about AI taking the jobs of humans, IBM have a different take.
We believe AI and cognitive work best when they’re deployed to extend and enhance human expertise, adds Ryan.
We spoke to him in depth about the success of the platform and IBM’s 5 year vision. Listen below
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