IBM Watson and Its Voice
September 8, 2015
i read “IBM Gets Watson to Sound Like Stephen Hawking.” Before I read the write up, I was disconcerted. After I read the article, I was offended. My annoyance comes from the antics of IBM and the approach of the Cnet story.
I reacted negatively to this statement:
What’s moving for me (I’m not sure in which direction) is that Watson sounds distinctly — to my ears, at least — like Stephen Hawking. The syllabic inflections have that British-Transatlantic hybrid thing going on. It’s all a little familiar, all a little like Hawking’s Intel-based vocal projections.
Why cover Watson’s ads? I will answer the question: “There’s not much else about Watson to cover.” Even IBM sidesteps Watson when it describes the wonders of IBM OmniFind Enterprise Search 3.
The real news about IBM is not the goal of delivering exaflop computing or curing cancer with Lucene, home brew code, and acquired technology. The news is that IBM continues to dump staff. One can track the cuts at the Endicott Alliance site. The Wall Street wizards swizzle around the fact that IBM has turned in more than a dozen quarters of declining revenue. The hapless licensee of legacy Informix staggers when the fees for support come from Big Blue.
Referencing Stephen Hawking and his “voice” does not make me happy. Ignoring the significant issues at IBM gives me a headache. Maybe Watson has a recipe to remedy these situations. Maybe not.
Perhaps Watson should lose its voice?
Stephen E Arnold, September 8, 2015
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