Watson Goes to Africa

February 26, 2014

Is big data the key to boosting Africa’s economic prowess? IBM seems to think so, and it is sending in its AI ambassador Watson to help with the continent’s development challenges. Watson is IBM’s natural language processing system that famously won Jeopardy in 2011. Now, Phys,org announces that “IBM Brings Watson to Africa.” The $100 million initiative is known as Project Lucy, named after the skeleton widely considered the earliest known human ancestor (Australopithecus, to be specific), discovered in Africa in 1974. (I would be remiss if I did not mention that an older skeleton, Ardipithecus, was found in 1994; there is still no consensus on whether this skeleton is really a “human ancestor,” though many scientists believe it is. But I digress.)

The write-up tells us:

“Watson technologies will be deployed from IBM’s new Africa Research laboratory providing researchers with a powerful set of resources to help develop commercially-viable solutions in key areas such as healthcare, education, water and sanitation, human mobility and agriculture.

“To help fuel the cognitive computing market and build an ecosystem around Watson, IBM will also establish a new pan-African Center of Excellence for Data-Driven Development (CEDD) and is recruiting research partners such as universities, development agencies, start-ups and clients in Africa and around the world. By joining the initiative, IBM’s partners will be able to tap into cloud-delivered cognitive intelligence that will be invaluable for solving the continent’s most pressing challenges and creating new business opportunities.”

IBM expects that with the help of its CEDD, Watson will be able to facilitate data collection and analysis on social and economic conditions in Africa, identifying correlations across multiple domains. The first two areas on Watson’s list are healthcare and education, both realms where improvement is sorely needed. The Center will coordinate with IBM’s 12 laboratories around the world and its new Watson business unit. (Wait, Watson now has its own business unit?) See the article for more on this hopeful initiative.

Cynthia Murrell, February 26, 2014

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Big data, Data, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.