IBM thinks the 'the debate is over' on artificial intelligence -- but this exchange says otherwise

IBM's chief financial officer, Martin Schroeter, made a bold statement on the future of technology on Thursday -- and he got some pushback. "The debate about whether artificial intelligence is real is over," Schroeter said, referring to IBM's cognitive computing platform, Watson. "And we're getting to work to solve real business problems." Katy Huberty, managing director at Morgan Stanley, challenged IBM on the topic during Thursday's earnings conference call. Huberty: "My other question is Watson: From the outside, it seems this business gets a pretty significant share of the press, but not contributing to revenue. Do you have visibility yet to when we can expect an inflection in revenue recognition from Watson? Or should we just not think about this as a contributing factor, or moving the needle in our models over the next couple of years? Schroeter: "....Watson is a silver thread.