7 ms·

IBM Watson’s Next Venture

63 points by nikunjk 13y ago

feralmoan 13y ago
"it will make its IBM Watson technology available as a development platform in the cloud". Future tense, and no bucket to drop an email into for notifications :( Would take no time at all to buy the parked watsoncloud.com domain (or something!) and flip up a launchrock page (... or something!).
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
pazimzadeh 13y ago
I wonder if this could be used in conjunction with Wolfram's new project, mentioned yesterday. http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2013/11/13/something-very-big-is-coming-our-most-important-technology-project-yet/ http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2013/11/13/something-very-big-i...
mtgx 13y ago
With the troubles they are having in non-US markets, along with other American companies, thanks to NSA, they need something else to survive. http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-leaks-hurting-us-tech-sales-in-china-2013-11 http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-leaks-hurting-us-tech-sal...
- einehexe 13y ago
  That is wishful thinking, the US dominates the internet now more than ever.
jackhammons 13y ago
I can't wait for the Watson API.
bhousel 13y ago
Glad to see that they've finally backed off from the "Watson will revolutionize healthcare" pitch.
- mikeyouse 13y ago
  I honestly believe it will. Maybe not Watson per se, but a distributed Waston-like system that can provide cutting edge diagnostic / treatment suggestions to the entire world will be hugely beneficial. Just imagine if anywhere on earth with cell-phone service can have 'first-world' medicine without the need for dedicated doctors. That'll probably be worth a few years of life-expectancy by itself.
  - hellrich 13y ago
    According to a presentation I heard two month ago it's not good enough yet. They can make accurate predictions in many cases, yet not in all/enough. At the moment they see more potential in analyzing health insurance claims, as falling back to a human expert is easier.
    - hershel 13y ago
      Do you still have a link to the presentation ? It sounds interesting.
      - hellrich 13y ago
        I'm sorry, it was a presentation of an IBM researcher during the BioASQ workshop. Perhaps you can find the slides/a summary on the BioASQ.org website.
    - toomuchtodo 13y ago
      Watson is already better at diagnosing some cancers better than human doctors. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/11/ibm-watson-medical-doctor/viewall http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/11/ibm-watson-me...
  - 13y ago
p1esk 13y ago
So, will they actually let you run your code on Watson supercomputer? Or is it just an access to API documentation?
- Queue29 13y ago
  You call an API, and it returns a result. The Watson hardware is nothing more than a Power 7 box.
  - p1esk 13y ago
    Actually, it's many Power 7 boxes (original Watson had 90) clustered together. But it's really cool if they provide access to their hardware (via API).
bluedino 13y ago
Why haven't Google, Microsoft, etc built a similar machine to Watson and play a fully-computerized version of Jeopardy? Ken Jennings optional.
- Queue29 13y ago
  Because it's hard?
- jahewson 13y ago
  Because they aren't selling supercomputers?
  - wmf 13y ago
    I would estimate that Google and Microsoft each operate more servers than IBM and they are definitely in the analytics business. (I consider Watson more analytics than HPC.)
    - utopkara 13y ago
      Not true. Watson style analytics requires HPC, the kind that Google and Microsoft do not (need to) build. Although, that might change with time as (cheaper) computers get faster.
christiangenco 13y ago
If anyone from Watson every wanders through HN, I - and everyone that have replied to this comment - am interested in API access. christian [dot] genco (at) gmail
- netvarun 13y ago
  Me too :) varun [at] semantics3 [dot] com
- utopkara 13y ago
  Don't mean to throw a wet blanked over your enthusiasm, but this is a very new technology, and unless you work at a major partner, the chances are slim that you'll get access to the API soon. Or, come work at IBM :-)

63 points by nikunjk 13y ago

"it will make its IBM Watson technology available as a development platform in the cloud". Future tense, and no bucket to drop an email into for notifications :( Would take no time at all to buy the parked watsoncloud.com domain (or something!) and flip up a launchrock page (... or something!).

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

pazimzadeh 13y ago

I wonder if this could be used in conjunction with Wolfram's new project, mentioned yesterday. http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2013/11/13/something-very-big-is-coming-our-most-important-technology-project-yet/ http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2013/11/13/something-very-big-i...

mtgx 13y ago

With the troubles they are having in non-US markets, along with other American companies, thanks to NSA, they need something else to survive. http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-leaks-hurting-us-tech-sales-in-china-2013-11 http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-leaks-hurting-us-tech-sal...

einehexe 13y ago
That is wishful thinking, the US dominates the internet now more than ever.

jackhammons 13y ago

I can't wait for the Watson API.

bhousel 13y ago

Glad to see that they've finally backed off from the "Watson will revolutionize healthcare" pitch.

mikeyouse 13y ago
I honestly believe it will. Maybe not Watson per se, but a distributed Waston-like system that can provide cutting edge diagnostic / treatment suggestions to the entire world will be hugely beneficial. Just imagine if anywhere on earth with cell-phone service can have 'first-world' medicine without the need for dedicated doctors. That'll probably be worth a few years of life-expectancy by itself.
- hellrich 13y ago
  According to a presentation I heard two month ago it's not good enough yet. They can make accurate predictions in many cases, yet not in all/enough. At the moment they see more potential in analyzing health insurance claims, as falling back to a human expert is easier.
  - hershel 13y ago
    Do you still have a link to the presentation ? It sounds interesting.
    - hellrich 13y ago
      I'm sorry, it was a presentation of an IBM researcher during the BioASQ workshop. Perhaps you can find the slides/a summary on the BioASQ.org website.
  - toomuchtodo 13y ago
    Watson is already better at diagnosing some cancers better than human doctors. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/11/ibm-watson-medical-doctor/viewall http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/11/ibm-watson-me...
- 13y ago

p1esk 13y ago

So, will they actually let you run your code on Watson supercomputer? Or is it just an access to API documentation?

Queue29 13y ago
You call an API, and it returns a result. The Watson hardware is nothing more than a Power 7 box.
- p1esk 13y ago
  Actually, it's many Power 7 boxes (original Watson had 90) clustered together. But it's really cool if they provide access to their hardware (via API).

bluedino 13y ago

Why haven't Google, Microsoft, etc built a similar machine to Watson and play a fully-computerized version of Jeopardy? Ken Jennings optional.

Queue29 13y ago
Because it's hard?
jahewson 13y ago
Because they aren't selling supercomputers?
- wmf 13y ago
  I would estimate that Google and Microsoft each operate more servers than IBM and they are definitely in the analytics business. (I consider Watson more analytics than HPC.)
  - utopkara 13y ago
    Not true. Watson style analytics requires HPC, the kind that Google and Microsoft do not (need to) build. Although, that might change with time as (cheaper) computers get faster.

christiangenco 13y ago

If anyone from Watson every wanders through HN, I - and everyone that have replied to this comment - am interested in API access. christian [dot] genco (at) gmail

netvarun 13y ago
Me too :) varun [at] semantics3 [dot] com
utopkara 13y ago
Don't mean to throw a wet blanked over your enthusiasm, but this is a very new technology, and unless you work at a major partner, the chances are slim that you'll get access to the API soon. Or, come work at IBM :-)