IBM's Watson sets up home in NYC to learn new tricks
Watson has gone a long way since its Jeopardy days. From that time, it has helped with cancer research, created its own recipes, pored over medical records and even reintroduced soldiers to civilian life. Sounds like IBM has even bigger plans for the supercomputer, though: the company has just launched Watson's new headquarters in New York's Silicon Alley, as well as five new client experience centers worldwide. IBM chose the location, because it keeps Watson near Silicon Alley developers and students from universities like NYU, making it easy to find talent when needed.
IBM has revealed the details of some of its more recent Watson partnerships. ANZ Global Wealth and Deakin University in Australia are using Watson to give customers financial advise and to assist students online, respectively. CaixaBank in Spain is helping Watson learn Spanish, while Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand is tapping into the computer's abilities to improve cancer care and to analyze patients' cases. Finally, Metropolitan Health in South Africa has been using Watson to provide its customers health and wellness services.
Since IBM believes the computer still has a lot more to offer, though, the company has also opened five Watson client experience centers in Australia, Brazil, England and Ireland. These centers are really more like interactive labs where potential clients can experience Watson for themselves, before deciding if they want to tap into its many, many talents for their services.
[Image credit: IBM Watson/Flickr]
