Cognitive Computing: What Everyone Should Know

Artificial intelligence has been a far-flung goal of computing since the conception of the computer, but we may be getting closer than ever with new cognitive computing models. Cognitive computing comes from a mashup of cognitive science -- the study of the human brain and how it functions -- and computer science, and the results will have far-reaching impacts on our private lives, healthcare, business, and more. The goal of cognitive computing is to simulate human thought processes in a computerized model. Using self-learning algorithms that use data mining, pattern recognition and natural language processing, the computer can mimic the way the human brain works. While computers have been faster at calculations and processing than humans for decades, they haven't been able to accomplish tasks that humans take for granted as simple, like understanding natural language, or recognizing unique objects in an image.