Google Uses Ninja Death Strike for Smart Software

November 10, 2015

I read “Google Tries an Android for Machine Learning, Releasing Open Source AI System.” The write up draws a parallel with Google’s Android strategy. The idea is to make something available in order to get developers and then eye balls.

I noted this paragraph:

The best explanatory quote comes from Greg Corrado, a senior researcher, in Google’s video on the system, embedded below: “There should really be one set of tools that researchers can use to try out their crazy ideas. And if those ideas work, they can move them directly into products without having to rewrite the code.”

The article mentions that the monopolists in hope and practice are into smart software. Smart software means 24×7 analytic type activity without humans. Better. Faster. Cheaper. More lucrative if one outfit sweeps up most of the activity. The goal is advertising and a reasonable chance at the type of market dominance that warmed the cockles of Andrew Carnegie’s heart.

There is one idea which caught my attention. The article and most of the others about this announcement did not mention the erstwhile leader of cognitive computing. IBM Watson is smart software, and it has a DNA anchored in open source, acquired technology, and the scripts of IBM researchers.

IBM Watson wants and needs its smart software to become a $1 billion business and pronto. Then IBM needs Watson to generate tens or hundreds of billions for the Big Blue stakeholders.

IBM is not an outfit with giving software away. I think that IBM will have to do a rethink and tap into Watson’s capabilities to find a tactic to get its smart software mojo back.

Did Google craft its open source play to blunt IBM? Nah. Google just wants to be Googley because being Alphabetty does not have the same cachet.

Does the Alphabet Google thing have a heart of gold and a weaponized open source strategy? Interesting question.

Stephen E Arnold, November 10, 2015

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Google, News, Open source

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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.