Best known for beating brilliant humans at “Jeopardy,” Watson, the super computer, soon may be coming to a hospital or insurance company near you.
But don’t call him (or her) Dr. Watson. The more appropriate reference may be to Sherlock Holmes’ “my dear Watson,” the indispensable right-hand man — or woman as Lucy Liu now portrays Dr. Joan Watson in the re-imagined TV show, “Elementary.”
IBM’s Watson is actually named to honor the company’s founder, Thomas J. Watson. But as Watson’s creators dream up future roles for their intelligent machine — medical sleuth, patient watchdog and reading buddy to humans may be a handful of them — IBM is now trying to tap the silicon genius’ remarkable ability to digest information in nanoseconds for a variety of health care applications. Read more here.
