Watson Weekly: Entrepreneurs, Watson Will Help You

January 17, 2016

I think that folks should help themselves. IBM is a giant struggling to generate revenues. The company’s approach to innovation is to buy companies which duplicate functions the firm already has. I assume that IBM’s senior executives ask Watson what to do, and s/he suggests, “Buy more companies like those you already own, pilgrim.”

I read “How IBM Watson Can Help Developers and Entrepreneurs with its Services”. I learned that

Technology giant IBM has been helping people from all walks of life,, especially developers who are prototyping and building Cloud-based cognitive computing applications, through Watson since its launch in 2011.

Okay, going on six years of helping.

Even better, IBM is now

allowing a growing ecosystem of developers, advertising professionals, businessmen, bankers, students, entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts and people from various professions to use this advanced cognitive computing platform.

So who is being helped? IBM or the developers? The write up clears this up for me:

Kambhatla [An IBM cognitive computing wizard] described Watson Developer Cloud as one stop shop for developers. The developers can also bring their own data to many of the services, to help train Watson about a specific domain or industry and customize API models to speed up and simplify the development of cognitive apps. For instance, Watson can be used to help play relevant advertisements anywhere, be it shopping complex, roadside or amusement park based on image of people in the vicinity, as it can guess approximate age, gender, etc.

Okay, but it has been five years. Where’s the revenue? Let’s ask Watson. Okay, but I can’t find a public general purpose IBM Web site to allow that to happen.

Gee, maybe Watson’s advice is too darned good to make available to the addled goose? The PR folks obviously have access. The senior managers have access. Kambhatla has access. Why the shroud of unknowing, dear Big Blue?

Stephen E Arnold, January 17, 2016

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under AI, IBM Watson, 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.