Whenever I read about some success with IBM's Watson I can't but think the name choice was unfortunate( I know it's from the founder...)
Dr Watson was always the duffer, the gofer, the reliable, slow and somewhat dull antidote to the brilliant Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes was the one with the brilliant brain who could solve a puzzle, find patterns and true correlations. If you're looking for Intelligence look to Holmes and not Watson.
- HPE Holmes
- CSC Holmes
- Oracle Holmes
I'd love to see someone brand their various services and products under the Holmes umbrella and put Watson and Holmes head to head.
“I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson,” said he. “When your round is a short one you walk, and when it is a long one you use a hansom. As I perceive that your boots, although used, are by no means dirty, I cannot doubt that you are at present busy enough to justify the hansom.”
“Excellent!” I cried.
“Elementary,” said he.
Oh dear, Watson just Elementary.
The debate over Watson’s capabilities is more than just an academic exercise. With much of IBM’s traditional IT business shrinking as customers move to newer cloud technologies, Watson has come to play an outsized role in the company’s efforts to prove that it is still relevant in the modern business world. That has made it key to the survival of Ginni Rometty, the chief executive who, four years after taking over, is struggling to turn round the company. Watson’s renown is still closely tied to its success on Jeopardy! “It’s something everybody thought was ridiculously impossible,” says Kris Hammond, a computer science professor at Northwestern University. “What it’s doing is counter to what we think of as machines. It’s doing something that’s remarkably human.”
https://www.ft.com/content/dced8150-b300-11e5-8358-9a82b43f6b2f