Chapter 13 Case: IBM Watson Taking over the World Watson is an IBM supercomputer that combines artificial intelligence (Al) and sophisticated analytical software for optimal performance as a question answering machine. The supercomputer is named for IBM's founder, Thomas J. Watson. The Watson supercomputer processes at a rate of 80 teraflops (trillion floating-point operations per second). To replicate (or surpass) a high-functioning human's ability to answer questions, Watson accesses 90 servers with a combined data store of over 200 million pages of information, which it processes against 6 million logic rules. The device and its data are self-contained in a space that could accommodate 10 refrigerators. To showcase its abilities, Watson challeng two top-ranked players on the television game show Jeopardy! and beat champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in 2011. The Watson avatar sat between the two other contestants, as a human competitor would, while its considerable bulk sat on a different floor of the building. Like the other contestants, Watson had no Internet access. In the practice round, Watson demonstrated a humanlike ability for complex wordplay, correctly responding, for example, to "Classic candy bar that's a female Supreme Court justice" with "What is Baby Ruth Ginsburg?" Rutter noted that although the retrieval of information is "trivial" for Watson and difficult for a human, the human is still better at the complex task of comprehension. Nevertheless, machine learning allows Watson to examine its mistakes against the correct answers to see where it erred and so inform future responses. 6 1. Explain why IBM Watson is a form of disruptive technology. 2. Explain how IBM Watson can be used in ebusiness to help a company compete. 3. If you could access IBM Watson at your school, how would you use it to help you create a competitive advantage