Hasta La Gadget!

You’ve hear about Watson, IBM’s own child and artificial intelligence system that has been touted for its super-computing powers. Well, Watson might know a lot of stuff, defeated “Jeopardy!” champions, and memorized the Urban dictionary, but it still needs to go to school. IBM has announced that it will be sending Watson to New York State’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Although that sounds weird, but yes, Watson is the first computer to be sent to university. Watson will be learning courses in math and English. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: MacBook EFI Updates Bids Adieu To Battery Issues, Google Forms Refreshed,

IBM‘s infamous Watson supercomputer is making its way to the classroom after appearing on Jeopardy! a while back. IBM announced today that they’ll be building another Watson supercomputer and will be giving it to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to be the first university to receive a Watson supercomputer. Other universities are planned to get one in the future.

Rensselaer will receive the Watson system thanks to a grant that allows the university to invest more resources to research and development of big data, analytics, and cognitive computing. However, in return, IBM is asking the university to send its findings their way so that they can improve Watson even more.

Rensselaer’s private Watson supercomputer will have 15 terabytes of storage, which is actually more than even the Jeopardy! version had. Plus, the room that Watson will be stored in will allow 20 people at a time to work inside, including faculty, graduate students, and a few undergraduate students.

So what will the supercomputer be used for at the university? Artificial intelligence researchers at Rensselaer want to improve Watson’s mathematical ability and help it figure out the meaning of newer words. They also want to improve the computer’s ability to analyze all of the images, videos, and emails floating around on the internet, something that will prove to be no easy task for the folks at the university.

IBM’s Watson heading to its first university is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I’ve always thought that the IBM Watson supercomputer was a very cool device indeed. In fact, I thought Watson was such an interesting machine that I even watched the episodes of Jeopardy where Watson was a contestant. I think it’s the only time I ever watched Jeopardy.

IBM researchers decided to try to teach Watson how to engage in small talk. Apparently, this is a way that scientists are able to gage if the computer can truly think. This boils down to something called the Turing test that determines if the computer is capable of carrying on natural conversation without giving itself a way. If the machine is capable of doing that, it can be considered intelligent. So far, no computer has accomplished the test.

A scientist at IBM named Eric Brown decided to try and help Watson learned more the nuances of human speech by helping it to understand the subtlety in a human conversation, especially slang. Two years ago, Brown decided to teach Watson slang by setting the machine loose on the Urban Dictionary. If you’ve ever ventured to the Urban Dictionary, you’ll know that it has definitions for things like OMG and hot mess among others.

The problem Brown found was that Watson was unable to distinguish between polite language and profanity. Apparently, the IBM researchers were particularly disturbed when Watson use the word “bullshit” in response to a question posed to it by a researcher. Ultimately, Brown and his team were forced to develop a filter to keep Watson from swearing and eventually purged the contents of the Urban Dictionary from the computer’s memory. I would absolutely watch Jeopardy every day if you never knew when Watson might proclaim “Suck it Trebek!”

[via CNN]

IBM Watson supercomputer learned to curse thanks to Urban Dictionary is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Medical research facility Cleveland Clinic and IBM are teaming up to develop ways to let supercomputer Watson become a useful tool for doctors. The machine’s ability to analyze language and scour its database for answers is hoped to offer quicker and more exhaustive diagnoses for patients. As modern medical students spend less time memorizing diseases, they’re focusing on learning how to think critically and navigate the huge amount of available data. Big Blue is also hoping that the Jeopardy champion will learn how to digest a person’s medical records in order to match up their history with maladies. We’re just nervous that someone will give Watson a telepresence robot and send him out onto the wards — you’d be worried about his bedside manner if you’ve seen his ruthless quizzing manner.

Continue reading Cleveland Clinic and IBM team up to make Watson a Doctor (video)

Filed under: Science, Alt

Cleveland Clinic and IBM team up to make Watson a Doctor (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not that much time has passed since AT&T announced it was bringing Zuckerberg’s social network right to your U-verse-equipped TV, and now those with an iOS device are in for yet another treat. The Rethink Possible company just outed its new Easy Remote application for Apple’s mobile operating system, with the main feature being a Watson-powered one that lets U-verse users control their system via voice — you know, things like picking a show to watch or even flipping through channels. That’s not it, however, the app also brings other tidbits such as one-touch access to closed captioning and gesture-based commands. Unfortunately, AT&T’s Easy Remote app is only available for iOS at the moment, though we can’t imagine it’ll be too long before the carrier launches one for folks on a different ecosystem. Either way, you can get a quick glimpse of the application right after the break, where a pretty edifying video awaits.

Continue reading AT&T outs U-verse Easy Remote app for iOS, uses voice and gestures to take control

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Software, HD

AT&T outs U-verse Easy Remote app for iOS, uses voice and gestures to take control originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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