1. IBM’s Watson
Holland Davey, Jana Babouder-Matta,
Chris Honeycutt, David Burr

2. Introduction
• Super Computer developed by IBM Research
• Named for IMB’s founder: Thomas J. Watson
• Initially created for Jeopardy! Game Show
• Dr. David Ferrucci leads the Watson project

3. Development
• Search engines deliver thousands of results that
match keywords
• University’s have worked on a consistent question
answering software for years
• Programmed by 25 IBM scientists
• Not connected to the internet

4. Jeopardy! Challenge
• Set out to answer complex Jeopardy!
Questions
• Language is hard for computers because of
“intended meaning”
• During trials, it won 70% of practice games

5. Jeopardy! Challenge
• February 2011: First computer to compete against humans
in Jeopardy!
• Defeated shows greatest two champions Ken Jennings and
Brad Rutter

6. Could YOU beat Watson?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpKoIfTu
krA&feature=related

7. Purpose of Watson
• Idea formed during IBM top executives
brainstorming publicity stunts
• Deep Blue– chess supercomputer defeated Garry
Kasparov
• IBM’s previous most advanced machine was slow
and inaccurate
• Overall goal: “to create a new generation of
technology that can find answers from data more
effectively than current search engines”

8. Technology
• Question-answering Technology
• Deep understanding of natural language.
– Process and answer complex questions
that have puns, irony, and/or riddles

10. Technology
• Computer running Software called Deep QA
• Runs on cluster of Power 750 computers
– ten racks holding 90 servers, for a total of 2880
processor cores running DeepQA software and
storage
– Holds approximately one million books worth of
information

11. How does Watson answer a question?

12. The Process
Step 1:
Question Analysis

13. The Process
Step 2:
Hypothesis Generation

14. The Process
Step 3:
Hypothesis and Evidence
Scoring

15. The Process
Step 4:
Final Merging and Ranking

16. This process takes a total of

17. A little more in-depth

18. Watson’s Future
• Commercial Product
http://www-
03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/what-is-
watson/watson-after-jeopardy.html

19. Words from John Kelly, Director of IBM Research:
“I want to create something that I can
take into every other retail industry, in
the transportation industry, you name
it.”
“Any place where time is critical and you need to
get advanced state-of-the-art information to the
front decision-makers. Computers need to go
from just being back-office calculating machines
to improving the intelligence of people making
decisions.”

20. Beyond Jeopardy
• Medical Assistant: Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center Partnership (March 2012)
– Clinicians will “teach” Watson to review
oncological case histories and come up with
best diagnosis and treatment

22. Managerial Purposes
• Financial Assistant: Working with Citi Bank
– Help analyze customer needs
– Process financial, economic, product, and client
data
– Help financial professionals make better decision
• Could IBM Watson rival complex derivatives on the
trade floor?

23. Other Possibilities?
• Travel
• Retail
• Healthcare
• Classroom

24. Advantages
• Provides Services that revolve around the
new, digital world
• Gives immediate answers instead of
search results
• Healthcare uses
– Diagnosis
– Information Warehouse
• Efficiency and Organization

25. Disadvantages
• Cannot read PET and CT scans to identify tumors
• Questions asked must be in text
• Less human effort
– Too reliant upon technology
– Less personal interaction between doctors and
patients
• Not cognitive
– Only manipulates symbols
• Limits understanding and reasoning behind decisions

26. Competition
• Thus far there are no other computers that are near the
performance level of Watson
• Microsoft and GE announced plans to create something
similar to use in the healthcare industry
– Aim to use analytics, high performance software
technologies to deliver patient outcomes and clinical
applications

27. Applications to SIT
• New technology for a business’ Decision Making
Processes
– Organizational structure may shift based on
allocation of decision making
• Potentially eliminates the needs/advantages of
Virtual Teams (especially in healthcare)
• Changes Knowledge Management Processes

28. Discussion Question #1
• What do you think about the future of
this product, and the potential to have a
super computer with voice recognition
software? Could this lead to an
iRobot/personal assistant?

29. Discussion Question #2
• Could this eliminate the use for the
education system all together?

30. Discussion Question #3
• If you were a manager at a business, would you
trust using Watson with decision making, or do you
feel human decision making still is a more reliable
source?