Sesame Workshop and IBM Watson partner on platform to help kids learn

Sesame Workshop and IBM Watson today announced that they are creating a vocabulary app and the Sesame Workshop Intelligent Play and Learning Platform. The new platform will be used by Sesame Workshop and IBM to create a series of cognitive apps, games, and toys to help kids learn. This is the first public action announced by the partnership, which was formed more than a year ago. The platform will run on IBM Cloud and the partners invite the "ecosystem of software developers, researchers, educational toy companies, and educators to tap IBM Watson cognitive capabilities and Sesame Workshop's early childhood expertise to build engaging experiences to help advance children's education and learning," according to a statement from IBM Watson. "When we first started 45 years ago, [our show] was basically using the technology of the day -- that was TV -- to give all kids access to high-quality education," Sesame Workshop COO Steve Youngwood told VentureBeat in a phone interview.