5 ms·

I wonder if this is marketing. IBM makes BIG HUGE MASSIVE (tm) server clusters that have lots of blinkenlights and require lots of power and are so crazy and h

by blhack 16y ago

I wonder if this is marketing. IBM makes BIG HUGE MASSIVE (tm) server clusters that have lots of blinkenlights and require lots of power and are so crazy and huge and awesome that the people working at IBM must be hyper-geniuses! vs Watson runs on a laptop.

brisance 16y ago
I can't see how that would be marketing. Most people would be more impressed if Watson could run on a laptop, today. I know I would.
- gojomo 16y ago
  More impressed? Yes. More willing to spend millions on hardware and software? No.
  - wtallis 16y ago
    I can see IBM charging customers millions a year to keep their Watson database up to date, even if it ends up running on an x86 Linux box. When they adapt it for general Q&A use, Watson will probably be as useful as Wolfram Alpha wishes it was.
  - brisance 16y ago
    And how would they look if, as the original poster surmised, it were possible for a competitor to produce something similar to Watson on today's laptop? IBM would've spent millions of dollars making themselves look very silly. It's a similar situation to moon-landing skepticism. If it didn't happen, it would be trivial for the Soviet Union to disgrace and discredit the achievement by faking their own.
    - gojomo 16y ago
      No other team was given a crack at the Jeopardy spotlight. IBM didn't win against a bunch of other teams for the slot on the human/machine faceoff; it was all orchestrated for them. So give others some time to emerge. I suspect in a year or two – perhaps sooner, if an organized open competition with real cash prizes is launched – we'll have a better idea of what a lean team could do on the trivia domain. It may not be reduced to a single 2011-equivalent laptop... but it might be a single 2011-equivalent maxed-out-server (rather than a Watson-like server room).
- blhack 16y ago
  Most programmers would, but any non-technical people would think that you could hire a programmer to do the same thing for $1000.
whatusername 16y ago
Watson can run on a laptop. It just can't get the answers fast enough to win Jeopardy. https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/InsideSystemStorage/entry/ibm_watson_how_to_build_your_own_watson_jr_in_your_basement7?lang=en https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/In...

by blhack 16y ago

brisance 16y ago

I can't see how that would be marketing. Most people would be more impressed if Watson could run on a laptop, today. I know I would.

gojomo 16y ago
More impressed? Yes. More willing to spend millions on hardware and software? No.
- wtallis 16y ago
  I can see IBM charging customers millions a year to keep their Watson database up to date, even if it ends up running on an x86 Linux box. When they adapt it for general Q&A use, Watson will probably be as useful as Wolfram Alpha wishes it was.
- brisance 16y ago
  And how would they look if, as the original poster surmised, it were possible for a competitor to produce something similar to Watson on today's laptop? IBM would've spent millions of dollars making themselves look very silly. It's a similar situation to moon-landing skepticism. If it didn't happen, it would be trivial for the Soviet Union to disgrace and discredit the achievement by faking their own.
  - gojomo 16y ago
    No other team was given a crack at the Jeopardy spotlight. IBM didn't win against a bunch of other teams for the slot on the human/machine faceoff; it was all orchestrated for them. So give others some time to emerge. I suspect in a year or two – perhaps sooner, if an organized open competition with real cash prizes is launched – we'll have a better idea of what a lean team could do on the trivia domain. It may not be reduced to a single 2011-equivalent laptop... but it might be a single 2011-equivalent maxed-out-server (rather than a Watson-like server room).
blhack 16y ago
Most programmers would, but any non-technical people would think that you could hire a programmer to do the same thing for $1000.

whatusername 16y ago

Watson can run on a laptop. It just can't get the answers fast enough to win Jeopardy. https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/InsideSystemStorage/entry/ibm_watson_how_to_build_your_own_watson_jr_in_your_basement7?lang=en https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/In...