Talking Point: AI-driven systems to help firms go digital

To make this happen is IBM Watson – a cognitive system enabling a new partnership between people and computers. Named after IBM founder Thomas J Watson, the supercomputer combines AI and analytical software for optimal performance as a “question answering” machine that thinks like a human. For IBM, cognitive is digital business plus digital intelligence. With Watson, people can analyse and interpret all their data, like unstructured text, images, audio and video. They can provide personalised recommendations by understanding a user’s personality, tone and emotion.

For Sriram Raghavan, Director at IBM research-India and CTO, IBM India, security in the context of cognitive is now a priority. “There is a class of system that learns all the time. If you put a system in an enterprise, for example customer services or health care, the system is not exposed to uncontrolled inputs and normal security measures,” Raghavan said during the “IBM cognitive studio demo showcase” event in the capital. “...but if you deploy a system in public where every piece of input the system takes, it not only responds to it but also there are chances that it changes its behaviour -- then an entire new layer of safety measures is needed,” he added. 

With Watson, you can utilise machine learning to grow the subject matter expertise in your apps and systems and create chat bots that can engage in dialogue. “We are working with technologies to detect false input. The system can respond to such inputs but not change its behaviour. You want cognitive to learn but, at the same time, you don’t want it to change the behaviour -- that is what we have in our systems,” Raghavan noted. IBM Watson can not only make mocktails for you or design/ choose a dress and predict weather, it can also help in precision agriculture or work as career adviser, teacher or even help in security intelligence.