Watson is Moving…to the Cloud

IBM recently announced plans to make Watson (the supercomputer) more widely accessible by turning it into a cloud-based service – in essence, making artificial intelligence more widely available.

The first area to benefit from Watson’s machine-learning capabilities will be healthcare, where it is already being used in clinical trials to help oncologists diagnose and treat cancer. In an era when new medical breakthroughs are occurring every day, it’s impossible for doctors to keep up with all of the latest developments. But Watson’s ability to comb through volumes of peer-reviewed research and clinical data could improve diagnostic accuracy and increase the range of treatment options offered to patients.

Other areas where Watson will undoubtedly play a role in the future include financial services and government. Users will provide a share of the value they create to pay for the service.