IBM's supermachine 'WATSON'

Watson is an IBM supercomputer that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and sophisticated analytical software for optimal performance as a “question answering” machine. The supercomputer is named for IBM’s founder, Thomas J. Watson.

The Watson supercomputer processes at a rate of 80 teraflops (trillion floating-point operations per second). To replicate (or surpass) a high-functioning human’s ability to answer questions, Watson accesses 90 servers with a combined data store of over 200 million pages of information, which it processes against six million logic rules. The device and its data are self-contained in a space that could accommodate 10 refrigerators.

Key Features:
  • Watson can understand all forms of data, interact naturally with people, and learn and reason, at scale. With Watson you can,
    • Understand: You can analyze and interpret all of your data, including unstructured text, images, audio and video.
    • Reason: You can provide personalized recommendations by understanding a user's personality, tone, and emotion.
    • Learn: You can utilize machine learning to grow the subject matter expertise in your apps and systems.
    • Interact: You can create chat bots that can engage in dialog.


Watson's key components include:

  • Apache UIMA (Unstructured Information Management Architecture) frameworks, infrastructure and other elements required for the analysis of unstructured data.
  • Apache's Hadoop, a free, Java-based programming framework that supports the processing of large data sets in a distributed computing environment.
  • SUSE Enterprise Linux Server 11, the fastest available Power7 processor operating system.
  • 2,880 processor cores.
  • 15 terabytes of RAM.
  • 500 gigabytes of preprocessed information.
  • IBM'sDeepQA software, which is designed for information retrieval that incorporates natural language processing and machine learning.
  • Applications for the Watson's underlying cognitive computing technology are almost endless. Because the device can perform text mining and complex analytics on huge volumes of unstructured data, it can support a search engine or an expert system with capabilities far superior to any previously existing. In May 2016, BakerHostetler, a century-old Ohio-based law firm, signed a contract for a legal expert system based on Watson to work with its 50-human bankruptcy team. ROSS can mine data from about a billion text documents, analyze the information and provide precise responses to complicated questions in less than three seconds. Natural language processing allows the system to translate legalese to respond to the lawyers’ questions. ROSS' creators are adding more legal modules; similar expert systems are transforming medical research.

Comparison with human players.

Watson's basic working principle is to parse keywords in a clue while searching for related terms as responses. This gives Watson some advantages and disadvantages compared with human Jeopardy! players. Watson has deficiencies in understanding the contexts of the clues. As a result, human players usually generate responses faster than Watson, especially to short clues. Watson's programming prevents it from using the popular tactic of buzzing before it is sure of its response. Watson has consistently better reaction time on the buzzer once it has generated a response, and is immune to human players' psychological tactics, such as jumping between categories on every clue.

Current and future applications

Watson is based on commercially available IBM Power 750 servers that have been marketed since February 2010. IBM also intends to market the DeepQA software to large corporations, with a price in the millions of dollars, reflecting the $1 million needed to acquire a server that meets the minimum system requirement to operate Watson. IBM expects the price to decrease substantially within a decade as the technology improves.
Commentator Rick Merritt said that "there's another really important reason why it is strategic for IBM to be seen very broadly by the American public as a company that can tackle tough computer problems. 

In 2013, it was reported that three companies were working with IBM to create apps embedded with Watson technology. Fluid is developing an app for retailers, one called "The North Face", which is designed to provide advice to online shoppers. Welltok is developing an app designed to give people advice on ways to engage in activities to improve their health. MD Buyline is developing an app for the purpose of advising medical institutions on equipment procurement decisions.

In November 2013, IBM announced it would make Watson's API available to software application providers, enabling them to build apps and services that are embedded with Watson's capabilities. To build out its base of partners who create applications on the Watson platform, IBM consults with a network of venture capital firms, which advise IBM on which of their portfolio companies may be a logical fit for what IBM calls the Watson Ecosystem. Thus far, roughly 800 organizations and individuals have signed up with IBM, with interest in creating applications that could use the Watson platform.

Sample codes and API's @ https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud?cm_mc_uid=67844489234114909789049&cm_mc_sid_50200000=1490978904&cm_mc_sid_52640000=1490978904

FAQ's:

> What is a cognitive computing system?
Cognitive computing is the simulation of human thought processes in a computerized model. Cognitive computing involves self-learning systems that use data mining, pattern recognition and natural language processing to mimic the way the human brain works.

> What is the IBM Watson Analytics?
IBM Introduces Powerful Analytics for Everyone. ... Watson Analytics offers you the benefits of advanced analytics without the complexity. A smart data discovery service available on the cloud, it guides data exploration, automates predictive analytics and enables effortless dashboard and infographic creation

> What is Cognos analytics?
IBM® Cognos® Analytics integrates reporting, modeling, analysis, dashboards, metrics, and event management so you can understand your organization's data, and make effective business decisions. After the software is installed and configured, administrators set up security and manage data sources. Next comes the data.

> What is Watson API?
IBM Watson API. Machine Learning. The IBM Watson Developer Cloud is currently available to a select group of partner developers who are developing “Powered by Watson” applications. ... Or, choose to request access to the Watson Developer Cloud and Watson APIs when they are publicly available.

> Let's just wait for it to available as an open source platform to build our own custom cognitive applications. 

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