What Will You Do With Watson?IBM

IBM has announced that it will invest $1 billion (600 million) in forming a new division that will fund outside developers and companies to create new artificial intelligence apps for the Watson supercomputer that famously beat humans on the US TV quiz show Jeopardy!

The 2,000-employee strong Watson Group will be based in New York City and will be headed up by Michael Rhodin, who was previously senior vice president of IBM's software solutions group.

It aims to support startups that are building cognitive apps through the Watson Developers Cloud. Since the Watson Ecosystem was announced in November last year, over 750 businesses and entrepreneurs applied in the hope of building the next generation of cognitive apps for Watson, IBM claims.

Watson won Jeopardy! in 2011, but since proving its intelligence to the US telly-watching public has developed both physically and in the range of services it provides. Originally the supercomputer was the size of a master bedroom (is that a scientific measurement, IBM?) to the size of three pizza boxes -- a reduction of 90 percent.

It is also being used in a variety of industries, including healthcare, retail and banking to deal with big data. Particularly interesting is its work in the medical field, where it has been devising personalised treatment plans for individual cancer patients. IBM has taught it to respond to queries in new formats, including by drawing pictures, and it's currently trying to train Watson to analyse the content of videos, rather than just using their metadata.

"IBM has transformed Watson from a quiz-show winner, into a commercial cognitive computing breakthrough that is helping businesses engage customers, healthcare organisations personalise patient care, and entrepreneurs build businesses," said Rhodin in a statement.

"Watson is one of the most significant innovations in IBM's 100 year history, and one that we want to share with the world. With these investments we strive to make new markets, reach new buyers and transform industries and professions."

Go here to read the rest:

IBM funds group to build artificial intelligence apps for Watson supercomputer