IBM: How Smart Is Watson?

In 2011, IBM Watson debuted on the TV show Jeopardy and impressed millions in a spectacle where the artificial intelligence defeated 2 of jeopardy's all time great champions. While Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft have been developing their AI to handle daily tasks such as shopping, calling an Uber, or playing music, IBM (NYSE: IBM) has been pushing Watson into tackling real world problems such as cancer diagnosis/treatment, traffic accident prevention, and tax reporting. IBM Watson, like the rest of its AI colleagues, is a product of machine learning, natural language processing, and statistical analysis. The difference lies in the types of data IBM is feeding Watson. Watson is being taught intellectual knowledge in the form of research papers, large industrial data reports, and other scholarly publishings.