Mary-Louise Hoffman
IBM has launched marketing campaigns to offer its Watson computing technology in the federal market with the goal of helping agencies manage health records, the Washington Post reported Monday.
Mohana Ravindranath writes that IBM professionals went to Capitol Hill last year to demonstrate the computer’s potential clinical applications to lawmakers.
The company also hopes the device will help public-sector organizations communicate with citizens.
“Think of the possibilities of using Watson to improve citizen satisfaction and create something like a ‘411 for government’ that helps people navigate through the maze of federal agencies to quickly find the best, most accurate answers,” said Anne Altman, IBM general manager for federal and government industries, according to the Post.
Watson is being tested at several U.S. hospitals, including the New York-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Houston-based M.D. Anderson Cancer Treatment Center.
IBM has established a $100 million venture fund to help developers build Watson-based software applications.
“[W]e need a new paradigm,” IBM CEO Ginni Rometty told shareholders in a memo, adding that “these new systems are not programmed; rather, they learn, from the vast quantities of information they ingest, from their own experiences, and from their interactions with people.â€
Ravindranath writes the company has also been collaborating with universities throughout the U.S. to design cognitive computing courses for the coming school year.
