Sounds like a very cool demo, but the optimism of some of these ideas is quaint.
If Watson is good enough at speech and context recognition to accomplish these things IBM can/will sell truckloads of Watson as a Service for the purpose of monitoring employees.
WaaS will read everyone's email and parse conversations recorded by their desktops and phones to identify people who are off-task, leaking information or talking about unions.
That's the sort of thing Executives care about it. When I set up email retention systems they were primarily interested in being exempt from journaling. When I set up physical security systems they wanted to be sure the executive board room cameras weren't mic'd and faced away from the main presentation area.
In practice, both systems were primarily used to keep tabs on employees - who was dumb enough to send an email to the news from work and who's leaving early.
This is how 'intelligent' systems will be used - electronic overseers with distributed eyes and ears - long before it's confined as a guest boardroom showpiece that gets tossed for suggesting the CXO get off his soapbox in a timely manner or correcting his knowingly incorrect assertions.
And yet we have millions (literally) of companies who do not employ this type of monitoring, despite it being trivial from within google apps.
> WaaS will read everyone's email and parse conversations recorded by their desktops and phones to identify people who are off-task, leaking information or talking about unions.
This specifically is not a terribly difficult monitoring task. You don't need something like watson to do it. Again, already available, still not heavily deployed.
The truth is people mostly trust each other and don't do shit like that. At some places they will, but watson is not the enabler here.
Just having software that can record and transcribe only relevant conversations, record action items, and email summaries would vastly improve the state of the meetings I attend.
Nothing worse than wasting 3 hours in a meeting and coming out where participants remember things incorrectly and go off in different directions.
Indeed but so far, software has shown itself much more capable of solving logical puzzle than determining relevance. It seems fairly clear that the Jeopardy win came from the program having a lot of data and logical statements from which it could make relevant guesses and deductions.
If the software could make a coherent summary of and answer questions about what took place in a single, informal meeting, that would be an incredible advance. I haven't seen evidence of this.
Right, at the company I currently intern at this is all done manually by the software librarian. It seems like there is a lot of room for automation in meetings; bonus points if such a system could tie into the issue tracker/SCM (whatever that may be, we use Accurev). Although Watson sounds like it would be helpful in cutting down on the number of pointless arguments in meetings where not everyone is on the same page.
IBM reps have been pitching Watson to me for years, but never have we seen an implementation or a commercial offer, much less a demonstration of something of value to us. Weirdly it clearly exists, or did exist, but I think marketing and sales have robbed R&D of the budget required to create a product and until they sell the non existent I think this will continue to be the case. If I was an IBM stockholder I would be pissed off.
>IBM reps have been pitching Watson to me for years, but never have we seen an implementation or a commercial offer, much less a demonstration of something of value to us.
> IBM’s researchers are also considering other ways the technology at work in their current demo might help out in a workplace—for example, by having software log the relative contributions of different people to a discussion
I find that incredibly creepy and hope to god that never is developed.
If it records the -actual- contribution and not the number of words spoken I'd be all for it. I'd also want it to measure the amount of hot air people talk.
The failure (or limitations, because I don't wish to talk down the very real achievements) of current AI is the overfocus on building computers that provide answers to our questions.
We're not going to get real AI until we develop a system that asks us questions and has a sense of curiosity. A system that can make suggestions is excellent, but as described it's effectively cybermancy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_divination). One doesn't get the sense that Watson is ever going to interrupt or pose a question on its own initiative, other than to clarify a human request put to it.
In my mind, this is a feature and not a bug. The greatest cybermancy spells technologists can create are inherently safer than an AI with potential to go rogue. Why do we want to create a god when we can become gods ourselves?
"Starving minds, welcome to Dr. Know! Where fast food for thought is served up 24 hours a day, in 40,000 locations nationwide. Ask. Dr. Know - there's nothing I don't."
incision|11 years ago
If Watson is good enough at speech and context recognition to accomplish these things IBM can/will sell truckloads of Watson as a Service for the purpose of monitoring employees.
WaaS will read everyone's email and parse conversations recorded by their desktops and phones to identify people who are off-task, leaking information or talking about unions.
That's the sort of thing Executives care about it. When I set up email retention systems they were primarily interested in being exempt from journaling. When I set up physical security systems they wanted to be sure the executive board room cameras weren't mic'd and faced away from the main presentation area.
In practice, both systems were primarily used to keep tabs on employees - who was dumb enough to send an email to the news from work and who's leaving early.
This is how 'intelligent' systems will be used - electronic overseers with distributed eyes and ears - long before it's confined as a guest boardroom showpiece that gets tossed for suggesting the CXO get off his soapbox in a timely manner or correcting his knowingly incorrect assertions.
wdewind|11 years ago
> WaaS will read everyone's email and parse conversations recorded by their desktops and phones to identify people who are off-task, leaking information or talking about unions.
This specifically is not a terribly difficult monitoring task. You don't need something like watson to do it. Again, already available, still not heavily deployed.
The truth is people mostly trust each other and don't do shit like that. At some places they will, but watson is not the enabler here.
piptastic|11 years ago
Nothing worse than wasting 3 hours in a meeting and coming out where participants remember things incorrectly and go off in different directions.
joe_the_user|11 years ago
If the software could make a coherent summary of and answer questions about what took place in a single, informal meeting, that would be an incredible advance. I haven't seen evidence of this.
cyorir|11 years ago
MalcolmPF|11 years ago
Getting some serious M5 vibes right now.
dvanduzer|11 years ago
I had a short gig at Cognilytics in 2010, and I can't figure out what any version of it has to do with Kawasaki Robotics, but...
EGreg|11 years ago
sgt101|11 years ago
AndrewKemendo|11 years ago
What exactly have they been pitching you?
orf|11 years ago
I find that incredibly creepy and hope to god that never is developed.
nezza-_-|11 years ago
Spooky23|11 years ago
When I think IBM, I think accounting tricks to maximize stock price. Not seeing deep insight.
coldcode|11 years ago
drdeadringer|11 years ago
anigbrowl|11 years ago
We're not going to get real AI until we develop a system that asks us questions and has a sense of curiosity. A system that can make suggestions is excellent, but as described it's effectively cybermancy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_divination). One doesn't get the sense that Watson is ever going to interrupt or pose a question on its own initiative, other than to clarify a human request put to it.
robinhoode|11 years ago
noonespecial|11 years ago
alxndr|11 years ago
http://venturefans.org/vbwiki/M.U.T.H.E.R.
roberjo|11 years ago
asgard1024|11 years ago