Beyond Watson
Several years ago, I had the pleasure of editing a Discover special issue focused on medical mysteries and breakthroughs — a topic of perennial interest for our readers. We had an item in that issue about IBM’s Watson, the buzzy, bedroom-sized computer possessed of artificial intelligence. Initially deploying Watson’s AI to dominate Jeopardy! champions, IBM ultimately had loftier goals for the system, particularly in medicine, where Watson Health was predicted to revolutionize how patients were treated. It all sounded wonderful and futuristic. Except it wasn’t. As you may have seen on the news earlier this year, Watson Health’s medical career came to a somewhat ignominious end as IBM announced they were shutting it down and essentially selling it off for parts. It seemed like that might be the end of AI…