IBM's Watson gave unsafe recommendations for treating cancer

IBM's Watson supercomputer gave unsafe recommendations for treating cancer patients, according to documents reviewed by Stat. The report is the latest sign that Watson, once hyped as the future of cancer research, has fallen far short of expectations. In 2012, doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center partnered with IBM to train Watson to diagnose and treat patients. But according to IBM documents dated from last summer, the supercomputer has frequently given bad advice, like when it suggested a cancer patient with severe bleeding be given a drug that could cause the bleeding to worsen. "This product is a piece of s--," one doctor at Jupiter Hospital in Florida told IBM executives, according to the documents. "We bought it for marketing and with hopes that you would achieve the vision.