IBM Watson hands down destroyed the two Jeopardy world champs, but what does the future hold for the super computer?
Watson, named after the IBM founder Thomas J, was built upon a cluster of 90 commercially available 750 Express systems and is so powerful that it rivals a humans ability to answer questions with confidence and accuracy.
It's the sheer horse power the system provides that allows it to incorporate a number of IBM exclusive technologies for the particular demands of processing a very large number of concurrent tasks, meaning it has the ability to search through 200 million pages of data in just a few small seconds.
But after it's game show exploits, where could such a clever piece of technology be used next? well, the answer according to IBM could be the health care sector, after initial discussions with Well Point health plan who have agreed to begin designing suitable apps with IBM.
Imagine how great this could be? the ability to scan thousands of doctors notes at one time, identify vital sign patterns which may otherwise be overlooked by a busy doctor and prevent the next stage of an illness before it even occurs, I should imagine it'd also save a few pounds too.
But it doesn't have to stop at healthcare, I think if it's a success in this field we'll also see many other sectors taking an interest. For instance, technical call centres and help desks would definitely find a use for such analytics.
Testing is due to start early next year, It'll be interesting to see the results.
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