Cloud Computing: AI Supercomputer Watson Goes West As IBM Courts Tech Hotshots

September 24, 2015 Off By David

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Robert Hof.

IBM’s Watson became famous in 2011 when the artificial intelligence-driven supercomputer handily beat the two best players ever on the TV game show Jeopardy. During a demonstration on Sept. 21 of what it has learned since then, it played another role: expert debater. Asked to present an argument that “Wikipedia is reliable,” it pored over some 4 million entries in the crowdsourced encyclopedia.

In nearly natural-sounding English, Watson presented several reasons why it should indeed be considered reliable, concluding politely, “I hope I have convinced you to support my view.” But more significant than the demonstration, which was a scripted version of what Watson is actually doing in IBM labs, was the setting: one of the biggest tech startup conferences of the year in San Francisco…

Thousands of entrepreneurs and software developers were gathered at TechCrunch Disrupt to show off and check out the latest ventures that might be the next Uber or Airbnb. Watson’s appearance signaled how important IBM views the San Francisco and Silicon Valley as a place to reach some of the fastest-growing and most lucrative customers…

Read more from the source @ http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2015/09/24/ai-supercomputer-watson-goes-west-as-ibm-courts-next-tech-hotshots/