by Angela Guess
Scott Crowder recently wrote in Data Informed, “When most people think about artificial intelligence and cognitive computing, they think of futuristic technological landscapes overrun with evil robots. But a growing number of business and IT leaders are beginning to grasp how cognitive computing is radically reshaping the present IT landscape. This next wave of information technology is giving businesses the ability to outthink their competition and giving society the ability to solve some of our most pressing problems. In 2011, when a first-generation cognitive system outplayed two human Jeopardy champions, it did only one thing: answer natural-language questions. Today, that family of cognitive solutions has more than 30 capabilities, accessed via application programming interfaces (APIs) and delivered from the cloud.”
Crowder goes on, “Application developers across multiple industries recognize the value of leveraging cognitive capabilities to add insight to their digital interaction with their customers. Cognitive systems are now helping doctors, for example, make more informed treatment decisions by analyzing medical journals and medical images, and in the process revolutionizing healthcare. Our computers are becoming, as Thomas Watson, Jr. once envisioned, the most potent tool ‘for extending the powers of the human beings who use them.’ Cognitive systems are defined by a few characteristics: They understand the world rather than automate it; they advise and provide evidence rather than output a binary answer; and they learn and improve rather than remain static. To achieve their goal of better understanding the world, cognitive systems glean insights from vast amounts of unstructured text, voice, and image data.”
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