IBM Aims Watson at Embodied Cognition

IBM Aims Watson at Embodied Cognition By Darryl K. Taft Posted 2016-11-05 Print Q&A: IBM is focusing its Watson cognitive computing technology on the area of embodied cognition, according to Grady Booch, chief scientist of Watson/M. At the close of IBM's recent World of Watson conference in Las Vegas, eWEEK interviewed Grady Booch, Big Blue's chief scientist of Watson/M about the future of IBM's Watson cognitive computing platform and where IBM is taking the technology to benefit enterprise customers, consumers and developers alike. Among other areas, IBM is applying Watson to embodied cognition or putting artificial intelligence (AI) into the physical world. "This is embodied cognition: By placing the cognitive power of Watson in a robot, in an avatar, an object in your hand or even in the walls of an operating room, conference room or spacecraft, we take Watson's ability to understand and reason and draw it closer to the natural ways in which humans live and work," Booch said in a talk. "In so doing, we augment individual human senses and abilities, giving Watson the ability to see a patient's complete medical condition, feel the flow of a supply chain or drive a factory like a maestro before an orchestra."