Watson: The Biography of a Machine

Watson's capabilities are now available via the cloud-powering services in the health care, financial services, retail and education markets.?Image credit: IBMWatson, a cognitive system technology platform that combines machine learning, natural language processing akin to a human's, and statistical analysis, was created over a four-year period specifically to compete in television favorite Jeopardy! Algorithmic techniques used include computational linguistics, reasoning, and machine learning and data retrieval. Watson, as a concept, was born in 2006, a full five years before its Jeopardy! Within IBM, executives were mulling over the company's next demonstration projects involving human vs. machine. Past challenges included the Blue Gene supercomputer and Deep Blue--the computer that beat Garry Kasparov at chess.