Ask Watson: IBM has started the first experiments of artificial intelligence called Watson, that operates in the customer service of companies to manage discussions with users. For example, people ask questions in writing as if they were talking to another human being, and receive answers through Ask Watson.
According to Fortune, Ask Watson can also communicate via mobile devices, or with chat and email. The first tests are occurring in marketing, insurance companies and banks, and in the future will be a springboard for third-party software applications.
A new ecosystem of apps
Ask Watson IBM’s vision is wide. As explained in the New York Times, artificial intelligence built by IBM will be a workshop for startups and companies that can design apps able to draw based on the analytical capabilities of Watson.
Some USA university teams already participated in a competition to evaluate the first applications: the winners of the competition at the University of Rochester, have predicted that it could be used during the preparation for natural disasters thanks to the tools of data analytics.
The rising of conversational search
It dates back to 20 years ago the first patent on the IBM cognitive computing: the perspective is to explore the Big Data ocean… by asking Watson! The giant of information technology that provides the data analytics industry, will derive a turnover of 20 billion dollars in 2015.
They are applications that exceed the traditional research “Question and Answer” (Q&A): IBM’s artificial intelligence can build active discussions with users learning from the preceding sentences of dialogue. It enables conversational search.
Other hi-tech giants have taken a similar approach. Google recently revealed the latest results of his Google Now personal assistant, as shown on the stage, through voice commands can plan an entire trip from the choice of destination reservations. Siri it’s also accelerating, and Apple states that can be integrated with Watson.
Creative frontiers
The initial tests were made in the business sector. The first public appearance was during the quiz Jeopardy!, where participants had to rebuild a question after listening to the answer: Watson defeated human competitors after a long period of training. He later reduced learning time with the applications in the processes of decision making in hospitals. A new era has just begun!
