IBM Watson, Google DeepMind Is Slicing into Health Care
March 3, 2016
Gentle reader, you may have seen out write ups about IBM Watson and its work to cure cancer and develop innovative recipes for barbeque sauce with tamarind.
I read “Smart Care: How Google DeeepMind Is Working with NHS Hospitals.” The write up points out:
A smartphone app piloted by the NHS could improve communication between hospital staff and help patients get vital care faster.
Yikes, Watson, a phone. Come here I need you will echo in the corridors of these paragons of efficiency throughout Britain.
I learned:
Their research, published in the journal Surgery, showed that half of hospital patients do not get the care they need fast enough, usually because of poor communication, particularly when one team of doctors or nurses hands over to another. In early pilots at St Mary’s Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, where Darzi [former health minister in the Blair government and director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London] is a consultant surgeon, they found medical staff responded 37% faster when alerted by the Hark app than when they used pagers.
Will an app work cooperatively with IBM Watson? Will DeepMind, the app, keep IBM Watson in the lounge area?
Painful questions for an app to answer or notify in this case of technological innovation.
Stephen E Arnold, March 3, 2016
IBM Continued to Brag About Watson, with Decreasing Transparency
February 29, 2016
A totally objective article sponsored by IBM on Your Story is titled How Cognitive Systems Like IBM Watson Are Changing the Way We Solve Problems. The article basically functions to promote all of the cognitive computing capabilities that most of us are already keenly aware that Watson possesses, and to raise awareness for the Hackathon event taking place in Bengaluru, India. The “article” endorses the event,
“Participants will have an unprecedented opportunity to collaborate, co-create and exchange ideas with one another and the world’s most forward-thinking cognitive experts. This half-day event will focus on sharing real-world applications of cognitive technologies, and allow attendees access to the next wave of innovations and applications through an interactive experience. The program will also include panel discussions and fireside chats between senior IBM executives and businesses that are already working with Watson.”
Since 2015, the “Watson for Oncology” program has involved Manipal Hospitals in Bengaluru, India. The program is the result of a partnership between IBM and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Watson has now consumed almost 15 million pages of medical content from textbooks and journals in the hopes of providing rapid-fire support to hospital staffers when it comes to patient records and diagnosis. Perhaps if IBM put all of their efforts into Watson’s projects instead of creating inane web content to promote him as some sort of missionary, he could have already cured cancer. Or not.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 29, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Watson Weekly: Managing Smart Buildings
February 29, 2016
I read “Now IBM Watson Wants to Look after Your Office Too.” Interesting. IBM as a company seems to be struggling with watching over its stakeholders’ interests, but let’s not go there.
No, let’s go there. I find the idea that a company which has demonstrated its inability to reverse a revenue decline after four years of trying and talking lacks a bit of credibility in the “management” area of expertise.
The write up informs me:
Siemens and IBM have announced they are working together to integrate software from IBM’s Watson IoT Business Unit, including analytics and asset management, into Siemens cloud-based Navigator energy and sustainability management platform to make it easier to manage smart buildings.
Now how many smart buildings are not managed at this time? I suppose I would like to know what a “smart building” is. Once that information is available, one can ask, “Who is providing management functions for these light, HVAC, and other accoutrements of life in increasingly marginalized traditional office structures?”
No answers in the write up, which is not surprising.
IBM’s public relations and marketing efforts for Watson are roaming far and wide. This is okay from a marketer’s point of view, but when the horse carrying the valiant marketers into battle is Lucene, I wonder about the steed’s trailworthiness.
Is anyone thinking about the glue factory? Do these facilities need Watson?
Stephen E Arnold, February 29, 2016
IBM: Transforming to What?
February 28, 2016
I read “Multi-Billion Dollar Question: Is IBM’s Transformation for Real?” The question is being asked by Fortune Magazine, an outfit which certainly has had a front row seat to its own transformation efforts.
The write up focuses on a Wall Street analyst who is not drinking the Big Blue fruit juice. Here’s the passage I highlighted:
IBM’s “core” revenues have declined by a stunning $29.7B, resulting in revenue declines (adjusted for currency and acquisitions and divestitures) in each of the last 4 years. Most sobering, IBM’s revenue growth rate on this normalized basis has not improved during the period.
This is news? I think not.
One of the initiatives which underscores IBM’s performance is the presentation of Watson. As you may know, Watson is a combination of:
- Lucene and other open source bits and pieces
- Home grown scripts
- Acquired technology
These “innovations” are presented as something new, innovative, and significant to businesses and consumers. Each time I read a puff piece like “IBM Watson Machine Learns the Art of Writing a Good Headline.” Text summarization and machine written news stories are not new.
IBM warrants some skepticism. What’s remarkable is that Fortune Magazine has seized on a single analyst’s observations? Good for the analyst. But the reality of IBM has been front and center for years.
Progress?
Stephen E Arnold, February 28, 2016
Weakly Watson: Oscar Ads
February 27, 2016
Short honk. I read “IBM Watson battles Hollywood robot stereotypes with Carrie Fisher and Ridley Scott.” Pretty darned amazing. IBM, an enterprise software company, is advertising on the Oscars award television program. The commercials feature Carrie Fisher and Ridley Scott. All I can say is, “Wow.” Lost in Space may be available after the ads appear.
Stephen E Arnold, February 27, 2016
Weekly Watson: IBM Interviews Itself and Does Not Mention Watson as a Favorite App
February 26, 2016
I came across an article in IBM Events called “Dan Magid Chief Technologist, IBM i Solutions.” It appears, and I am thinking in rural Kentucky, not a technology nerve center like Cedar Rapids or Boise, that Dan Magid, the article, reports an interview with Dan Magic (chief technologist) conducted and edited by Dan Magid.
I hope I have that straight.
There were some interesting points in the article / interview / content marketing thingy.
In response to a question about trends, I learned from Dan Magid (interviewer, expert, author, and i Solutions technologist):
Connectivity, Big Data and Cloud. Everything else going on is in some way connected to these three trends.
What? No Watson? Perhaps Mr. Magid, the interviewer, should ask Dan Magid, the technologist at IBM i Solutions, “What about Watson? You remember, don’t you? TV game show winner. Cook book author. Curer of disease.”
I also learned that IBM is concerned about customers. There is a baffling reference to something called Rocket. I know about Rocket, the search vendor, but the “Rocket” in the interview is presented as if the reader knows wherefore of that which Mr. Magid speaks. Sorry, I don’t. I get the main idea: IBM listens to customers. I would add that being a large company with a dedicated IBM capture team helps out the customer support thing.
I noted this question, “How can an organization stay relevant five years from now?” I was hoping that Mr. Magic would consult IBM’s senior management and relate the question to the 14 consecutive quarters of revenue decline, the stock price, the reductions in force, and other oddments of the Big Blue approach to “relevance.” Nope. Here’s what I learned:
The key to staying relevant is to understand your customers, your market and the direction of technology. … You need to understand technology direction so that you can take advantage of emerging technologies that will help your customers and so that you can ensure your organization is not surprised by a new technology that could make your business model obsolete.
Business model obsolescence. I would suggest that IBM’s business model might be a suitable subject for a case study by some eager beaver MBA candidates. Just a thought.
I enjoyed this comment too:
Question from Mr. Magid to Mr. Magid: What app can you not live without?
Answer from Mr. Magid to Mr. Magid:
The Expensable mobile app. I travel 2-3 weeks a month and keeping up to date on expense reports used to be a nightmare. I would return from each trip with an envelope full of receipts and spend a few hours organizing and entering them for reimbursement. I would often get months behind. Now, I use the Expensable app to enter my expenses as they are incurred. I take five minutes to review it when I get home and submit the report. It’s simple.
Yikes. Not Watson.
Remarkable write up which delivers quite an insight into IBM’s thought processes.
Stephen E Arnold, February 26, 2016
IBM and Its Watson Branding
February 18, 2016
I read “IBM Hits 52-Week Low as Watson Branding Flails.” The write up comes from a person allegedly in touch with the pulsing world of Wall Street. The article is interesting and contains a number of points which I found in line with my own ideas about IBM; for example:
- Watson is not a consumer product. IBM is relying on consumer marketing tactics, including TV and cultural icons like Bob Dylan.
- IBM’s financial performance has been disappointing to shareholders.
- IBM bought the Weather Company “platform” and put its CEO in charge of Watson.
The highlight of the article was this statement:
Bob Dylan walks off stage in his Watson commercial, he seems frustrated. Watson can’t sing. That is not all it can’t do.
Keeper for my quote folder.
Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2016
Weekly Watson: Playing Hoops with the Raptors
February 16, 2016
The Raptors do not have Stephen Curry on their team. The Raptors do have IBM Watson. I read “Raptors Team Up with IBM Supercomputer Watson to Analyze Player Talent.” The idea is that the basketball loving Canadians (no the game is not played on ice) will have a more effective squad with Watson in the locker room.
Watson is not a disturbance. The new team member is more of a cloud thing. As a result, Watson is everywhere, which addresses some of the problems in the Raptors’ line up.
According to the article:
…they’re [the basketball team] hoping that recruiting some help from a supercomputer will help Toronto take them to the next level.
I have had limited exposure to NBA professionals and managers. That experience suggested that supercomputers were absolutely one of the primary interests of those involved. None of this fashion, exotic cars, and friendly fans. Nope. Throughput, massive parallelism, and fresh approaches to machine learning were the chatter on and off the court.
A whiteboard with Xs and Os. Nope. Math equations for optimizing statistical anomalies when processing real time data like how many times the announcers said, “He drained that shot.”
I envision the announcers saying:
Watson mods the open source code. A quick call to Vivisimo and then more of those old Almaden home brew moves. It’s up. A miss. The Raptors lose again at the buzzer. Bummer.
Watson, in the post game interview, says, “My bad.”
Meanwhile the Golden State Warriors keep on winning.
Stephen E Arnold, February 16, 2016
Weekly Watson: Watson for President
February 10, 2016
I don’t want to confuse you. Watson for President has nothing to do with IBM. But, it is an election year, so maybe this is just some of that good, old campaign misdirection.
Now to the froth of the matter. A Web site is online which makes a case for electing IBM Watson, the cognitive choice, as president.
Here’s what a news conference would look like if and when IBM’s Lucene, acquired technology, and home brew scripts takes over America.
I like the hair style.
The Web site points out:
What makes Watson unique is its interface capabilities with humans. It not only interacts by speech but has a visual representation to convey its current state. Just in the same way humans have facial expressions to convey emotions, Watson changes its visual form to express its level of confidence in a selected answer. Wouldn’t the country be better if all politicians were that transparent?
There is a discussion of issues, but no reference to Watson’s ability to deliver on fiscal promises. I noted that turnover among staff is another lacuna. Watson has “weathered” another change among its human tenders.
Enjoy the videos and support Watson. Here’s what one happy supporter looks like:
Rah rah.
Stephen E Arnold, February 10, 2016
Watson Weekly: Cognitive Insurance
February 3, 2016
IBM ran an ad with the headline “Cognitive Insurance.” You can find the ad in the February 1, 2016, New York Times. The secondary headline is “Outthink Storms,” which is rendered in the favorite colors of some color blind males, shades of green. The main hook “Cognitive Insurance” is in green. I had to look a couple of times to spot the phrase in the upper right hand corner of the image.
What’s interesting to me is that the ad seems to display those nifty isobars I encountered in a science class decades ago. My hunch is that the gale force winds of the Weather acquisition are ruining the coifs of the IBM public relations and advertising wizards.
The phrase has been used by IBM as well as an outfit called “Cognitive-Insurance” at www.cognitive-insurance.org, which to my dismay would not render. No 404. Just a blank page. I saw a couple of references to presentations by various experts.
But No mention of Watson, which I find interesting. Perhaps IBM has decided that Sherlock’s sidekick and the various uses of the word by swimming pool companies, furniture stores, and universities is a bit of an issue.
So cognitive insurance it is. I assume that IBM Watson’s team will make a bee line to Los Angeles where weather has been semi exciting.
Stephen E Arnold, February 3, 2016
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