Computers that reliably understand human communications have been a staple of fiction going back decades or more. The Enterprise's computer in the 1960s vintage "Star Trek" series is as good an example as any. And truth is, that particular science-fictional ability probably would not have seemed all that remarkable to the typical person of the time. Access billions of pages of text, pictures, and video from a gadget I can fit in my pocket? Play a game with immersive graphics on a huge, high-resolution screen that hangs on the wall?

"Siri, what can you tell me about voice search marketing?" Voice search is the way of the future. Google's Beshad Behzadi said as much in an address at SMX West last March. At the same time, Amazon doubled down (almost literally) on its voice-enabled devices with two new offerings using its Alexa platform and Soundhound launched its Hound voice-search app on iOS and Android platforms. Consumers, meanwhile, are adopting voice search at an alarming pace.

IBM Watson Health has announced a joint initiative with the US Food and Drug Administration to study the use of blockchain technology to share health data to ultimately improve public health. At first, the two-year collaboration will focus on oncology data, pulling together and exchanging data from a variety of sources including that from clinical trials, genomic data, EMRs, and from miscellaneous Internet of Things data from wearables, apps and connected devices. IBM and the FDA will look at how the technology can facilitate information exchange across a spectrum of data types, including clinical trials and real world data. For example, patient-generated data from connected devices could provide clinicians with more insights into population health, potentially offering up research opportunities and ways to leverage large quantities of data into biomedical and healthcare industries. At the core of the collaboration is blockchain technology, which allows secure data sharing between organizations more freely and has been increasingly favored among industry leaders.

Illumina and IBM announced that they would be bundling IBM's Watson Genomics product with Illumina's TruSight Tumor 170, a tool used to help match very sick cancer patients with drugs that might help them. The move is the latest effort by DNA sequencing companies to try to get doctors outside major cancer centers like Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York or M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to try to scan patients' DNA. The idea is that the DNA test results can be used to help patients who don't have any options find medicines–either approved or experimental–that might help them. So far, this is considered standard practice for late-stage non-small cell lung cancer, but not for cancers in general. Illumina says the sale of DNA sequencing machines for use in cancer represents about 10% of its annual sales, or about $240 million.

For patients with cancer, sequencing tumors can be a beneficial way to improve targeted treatments and connect people with the right drugs, but the process is complicated and many clinics haven't gotten on board yet. Illumina, the biotechnology behemoth known for its DNA sequencing machines, hopes so. The company is now working with IBM Watson to help cancer patients get access to potentially life-saving DNA tests. "Less than 5% of cancer patients have their tumors sequenced, even though it can make a big difference in selecting the right therapies," Illumina's CEO, Francis deSouza, tells Fast Company. Currently, such testing is limited to the top medical and oncology centers globally, while targeted approaches--with the exception of some forms of lung cancer--are not common practice for most cancers.

Today's most advanced cognitive technology users offer a glimpse into the possibilities and tangible benefits of creating intelligent businesses. While scientists and engineers have been exploring cognitive and AI technologies in labs for decades, the big data explosion and recent advances in computing power have propelled them into mainstream applications. We wanted to find out exactly how businesses are applying these technologies across their organizations, and what tangible benefits they're beginning to realize. We surveyed 600 early adopters of cognitive technologies and wanted to share our learnings through an interactive visual. Did you know that 77% of organizations that already implemented cognitive and artificial intelligence technologies use them to innovate products and services, more than for any other business goal?

Though artificial intelligence experts may cringe at the portrayals of humanlike AI in science fiction, some researchers are nudging us closer to those visions. "I think it's useful that your user interface not only understand your emotions, your personality, your tone, your motivations, but that it also have a set of emotions, personality, motivations," says Rob High, the CTO of IBM Watson. "I think that makes it more natural for us." Last month, High's company unveiled Project Intu, an experimental platform that allows developers the ability to build internet of things devices using its artificial intelligence services, like Conversation, Language and Visual Recognition. Someday, the system promises to let programmers create a staple character of sci-fi: the gregarious, hyper-connected AI like J.A.R.V.I.S. of Iron Man, KITT of Knight Rider, or Star Wars' C3PO.

Read more about Digital India: Railways to install PoS machines at all reservation centres on Business Standard.

IBM Watson Health's Watson for Genomics platform is to help inform cancer treatment decisions based on gene sequencing data from company Illumina. The artificial intelligence software will by applied to data from Illumina's TruSight Tumor 170 platform – a next generation sequencing gene panel that provides data related to 170 genes associated with common solid tumours. Watson will analyse the data alongside medical literature, clinical trial data and professional guidelines to help produce informed insights on how cancers could be treated. The entire process from raw genetic data to treatment insights will be completed in a matter of minutes – much quicker than the usual week or so it takes scientists to produce a similar report. "This partnership lays the groundwork for more systematic study of the impact of genomics in oncology," said Deborah DiSanzo, general manager, IBM Watson Health.

IBM said its Watson Health unit has partnered with Illumina, a company that offers genome data sequencing tools, to integrate and standardize interpretation for cancer research. Under the partnership, Watson Genomics will be integrated into Illumina's BaseSpace and Tumor Sequencing Process. Specifically, Watson Genomics will be available to interpret data produced by Illumina's TruSight Tumor 170, which is a solid tumor profiling panel. The system aims to detect variants across 170 genes and looks at both RNA and DNA. Previously: Playing House: How IBM's Watson is helping doctors diagnose the most rare and elusive illnesses AI, MD: How artificial intelligence is changing the way illness is diagnosed and treated The integration covers research not diagnostic procedures.