TLDR: IBM’s Watson is about human augmentation, not termination
by Fast Company (highlights provided for you by Annotote)
“ Bernie Meyerson (Chief Innovation Officer, IBM): “It’s not about the damn Turing Test … I’m not trying to fool somebody [into thinking a computer is a real person]. Gimme a break. That’s never been the point.” Watson’s job, he says, is instead to work through the rising flood of data that modern technology is producing
“ It’s doing some of the doctors’ jobs — taking on an inhuman amount of grunt work — but it’s not replacing them
“ Watson is an agglomeration of about 30 products, aimed at dozens of industries that range from small to gigantic and require anything from little technical knowledge to advanced data science skills.
“ The origins predate Watson, to a system called “Deep Blue” that in 1997 beat the reigning human chess champion Garry Kasparov.
“ IBM also has a DIY offering, Watson Developer Cloud … in late 2015 IBM opened up Watson APIs for developers to plug their own programs into its cloud-based AI system.
“ Watson Analytics. People can upload any data — say, from a spreadsheet. The online tool walks users through its analysis of patterns or anomalies, such as in sales figures, and correlates them with other info sources IBM provides, like weather and location information. Users can ask Watson questions about the data
