Weekly Watson: IBM Watson Plays Tennis

September 8, 2016

My recollection is that IBM has provided a range of services to various sporting activities. I did not know that IBM Watson could serve, volley, and deal with love. Advantages, yes. Love, not so much. I learned that IBM Watson will be attending the US Open in “IBM Watson’s Next Match? The U.S. Open.” The story appeared on USA Today’s Web site along with a number of compelling pop up pleas for me to subscribe to the dead tree version of the Gannet newspaper. Err, no thanks.

I learned:

IBM has collaborated with the United State Tennis Association on technology for more than a quarter-century, but Watson, IBM’s self-proclaimed cognitive computer, is a newbie at the Open. IBM is leveraging Watson’s machine learning smarts and cloud-based analytics to try and bolster the fan experience during the tournament–while simultaneously raising Watson’s profile.

Just imagine. IBM is trying to raise Watson’s profile.

I highlighted another knowledge nugget from the McPaper online write up; namely:

Behind the scenes at the U.S. Open, Watson’s speech-to-text technology is “listening” to interviews with players and video clips of tennis action to generate transcripts and subtitles for videos published to the tournament’s website and other digital platforms.

I have always wondered if squeaky clean female tennis players from Eastern Europe cursed on court after losing a point. Perhaps Watson will monitor, translate, and display what real players say in natural language.

Even more interesting, USA Today revealed:

Through Watson’s natural language capabilities, fans can use the artificial intelligence-infused U.S. Open mobile app to ask such questions as, “Where can I get a hamburger?” or “Where are the bathrooms?”

Right. The facilities’ question. The crack journalism outfit was not, it appears, swept game, set and match by Watson.

I noted this statement:

I consider this one to be a fault.

Clever. The fault referenced informed McPaper that its social media alter ego was Pamela Anderson. Does Ms. Anderson play a vigorous game of tennis?

Stephen E Arnold, September 8, 2016

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under 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.