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Continue reading IBM shows off Smarter Traveler traffic prediction tool

IBM shows off Smarter Traveler traffic prediction tool originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who says Watson’s only good for laying the smack down on former Jeopardy champions? In what can only be described as the natural progression of things, Herbert Chase — professor of clinical medicine in Columbia’s Department of Biomedical Informatics — is working with IBM in order to retrofit the supercomputer to “help doctors diagnose and treat patients.” According to Chase, this level of robot practice has been impossible for the past score or so, and if the experiment works, Watson could serve to provide physicians “immediate, accurate answers to unusual, head-scratching questions that come up in their daily practice and do so based not only on the latest published research, but also the blogosphere.” In other words, Watson could rapidly collect and analyze up-to-date published data from a near limitless amount of online sources, and then use that knowledge to recommend suggestions that a seasoned M.D. may never consider. Furthermore, Chase sees tremendous potential for Watson in the realm of personalized medicine; considering that two patients with the same diagnosis won’t necessarily react to treatments the same way, Watson could come up with alternatives on the fly. There’s no clear indication of when the testing will wrap up, but see how far you get next time you’re in the emergency room by inquiring about Dr. Watson’s availability.

Columbia doctors turn to IBM’s Watson for patient diagnosis, clairvoyance originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Humans, allow us to present the latest episode of The Engadget Show — you won’t want to miss it. First up, Josh and Tim Stevens sit down with GM’s chief electrical engineer Micky Bly for a frank conversation on the future of automotive technology, chatting about everything from networked vehicles (with a surprise visit from the unmistakable EN-V prototype), electric cars, advancing smartphone integration, and a world without stoplights. Then, Micky announces and demos Chevy’s new MyLink infotainment system, in a world-first, Engadget Show-exclusive look at the new technology.

Fresh off a resounding victory over mankind, IBM’s Watson researcher David Gondek joins Josh and Paul for a breakdown of Watson’s Jeopardy domination and an in-depth conversation about machine-learning, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and the meaning of love. Last up, Josh, Paul, and Nilay bust out the Motorola Atrix 4G and break down the week in news, including Nokia’s Windows Phone announcement, the rise of Honeycomb tablets, and everything worth talking about from Mobile World Congress.

This is one you absolutely should not miss. What are you waiting for? Watch it now! Hit up the video stream after the break or download the show in HD below!

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Special guests: Micky Bly, David Gondek
Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm
Executive Producer: Joshua Fruhlinger
Edited by: Danny Madden
Music by: Note!
Visuals by: Batsly Adams
Opening titles by: Julien Nantiec

Taped live at SIR Stage37
Download the Show: The Engadget Show – 018 (HD) / The Engadget Show – 018 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show – 018 (Small)

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Continue reading The Engadget Show – 018: GM’s Micky Bly, Watson researcher David Gondek, EN-V demo, Atrix 4G

The Engadget Show – 018: GM’s Micky Bly, Watson researcher David Gondek, EN-V demo, Atrix 4G originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, IBM’s Watson is able to beat humans to the buzzer on some lousy television game show. But how does the smarmy supercomputer hold up to the business end of a baseball bat wielded by a jealous husband with opposable thumbs? Click through the break for a taste of sweet, carbon-based revenge.

Continue reading Conan kills Watson, evening the score (video)

Conan kills Watson, evening the score (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In case you missed it, Watson won again tonight. He even got the Final Jeopardy question correct this time, a multi-layered reference to Bram Stroker that he bet $10k on. His final score over the two rounds ended up at $77,147 (Watson has this thing for betting strange amounts that usually end in a 7), while Ken Jennings got $24,000 and Brad Rutter did $21,600 — both humans saving a bit of face after last round’s stunning defeat. Watson will be giving his $1,000,000 winnings to charity.

So, a few things:

1. We’re totally surprised, in a larger theoretical sense, that a computer could win at Jeopardy.
2. We’re totally not surprised that Watson, the system built by IBM over the past few years at the expense of millions of dollars, actually succeeded at winning at Jeopardy.
3. Computers have better reflexes than humans, as it turns out.
4. Deal with it.

If you can’t tell, we’re having a little trouble processing all the emotions brought on by a Jeopardy win from IBM’s Watson supercomputer. It’s obvious that IBM’s DeepQA research program has developed some of the most sophisticated natural language AI known to man. At the same time, Jeopardy questions aren’t really that hard. As evidenced by watching these Watson-dominated matches, all three contestants knew the answer most of the time, but Watson was just quicker on the draw. Of course, it’s no surprise that computers have quicker reflexes (even with the “handicap” of having to mechanically press the same style of clicker as Meatbag 001 and Meatbag 002), so why shouldn’t Watson get to use his inbuilt advantage to the utmost? It seems like a fair fight to us.

The question of “who is better at Jeopardy” aside (trust us, it’s Watson), the larger implications for the human race and our computer sidekicks are still unclear. Watson can currently answer simple trivia questions, sometimes couched in puns or minor riddles, with a decent level of accuracy. The answers themselves are no more than a high school student with Wikipedia access could pull off, and Watson has no way of knowing for sure when he’s right. He lacks a solid, computer-readable database of “facts” like a Wolfram Alpha, or the incredible reasoning abilities of a human, instead relying on statistical analysis of vast amounts of text. When it comes to Jeopardy, it turns out to be Good Enough, which is actually a pretty incredible achievement in the world of AI, and we’re sure we’ll be finding out soon what other applications IBM thinks Watson is Good Enough at — they’re thinking everything from healthcare to the financial industry. Still, we’re sure some of us clicker-speed-nit-pickers will remain unimpressed. Make sure to check out the Engadget Show tomorrow, where we’ll be chatting up the creators of Watson about all this, but for now… 01000011 01101111 01101110 01100111 01110010 01100001 01110100 01110011 00100001

Watson wins it all, humans still can do some other cool things originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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