Sweet Tea and NYC: Classroom to Corporate (3): Watson

If you don't know what Watson is, you might want to watch this video before you read any further.

Watson is basically a semi-AI, Q&A supercomputer developed by IBM and introduced to the world in 2011 on the popular U.S. game show Jeopardy!. Watson not only competed against two human game show champions, Watson won. This was a huge victory for IBM in changing public perception of the brand. After selling off their personal computer arm in the early 2000's, the general population had a difficult time understanding exactly what IBM does. The Jeopardy! win helped the public see that IBM had been hard at work on projects that would change our world far beyond present technology. This helped the company segway in the popular Smarter Planet marketing campaign that is not only a brilliant compilation of work by IBM partner, Ogilvy, but a clear vision of the future that the company sees for the world.

I had the chance earlier in the summer to visit Ogilvy and see the designs and learn more about the Smarter Planet campaign. The agency explained the Watson on Jeopardy! experience from a PR/communications standpoint, but left the details of Watson's full capabilities out. Today, IBMers at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY filled in those blanks. We had the opportunity to hear about the future of Watson and I was extremely impressed and excited about the possible impact, across industry lines, that Watson could have on so many different parts of our lives.

All of the researchers that spoke to our group were just phenomenal. I was overwhelmed by the amount of genius in the room at one time. Only at IBM!

Of course, I took as many pictures as I could at the office.