Live Blogging from November Cognitive Colloquium

From Steve Hamm, IBM Storyteller.  See also his book at link . A number of good examples.   Good overview of work that is going on, with supporting video.

" ... Guruduth Banavar, Vice President of Cognitive Computing, IBM Research

Wrapping up, there are three things I want to highlight….

First, concerning neuroscience:
The analogy we draw from neuroscience and the human brain, the inspiration we get from the brain, has driven a lot of thinking. This is an area the I want to explore more.
We talked about how cognitive systems need to aware of themselves at some level to be effective in collaboration. They have to know their limits—what they can and can’t do.

The second point concerns cognitive technologies:
The idea of knowledge engineering came across loud and clear to me. It came across in every session. We need to train people to understand data, domain knowledge and the language of domains. These are huge areas that will redefine jobs and professions.

Third point, about the combination of cognitive and immersive systems:
The concept that stood out for me was the importance of human scale. EMPAC can give us an opportunity to do experiments to explore this topic and find out what will work in a practical setting. ... " 

Deep Learning's Promise

Steve Hamm on the promise of Deep Learning.  Good, non-technical overview.  See some of my other posts on this tag that include short presentations on the topic.    Steve Hamm also has a good book on Smart Machines and Cognitive AI.

Smart Machines

Just completed this book.  And had a conversation with Steve Hamm, one of the authors.  A very good, most nicely non technical introduction to work at IBM research that led to Watson.  Over the years have had a number of connections with IBM Research.  In the 90's we talked to people there that were working on AI related topics that led to Watson, as we built our own AI efforts.

The similarity in investigation and direction is striking.  I am now in the process of doing a deeper dive into Watson and its current and future capabilities.   This book is a good start into the history and direction of the work.  There are many more details to work before its use is common, they have started the journey.

Smart Machines: IBM's Watson and the Era of Cognitive Computing (Columbia Business School Publishing) by John E. Kelly III , Steve Hamm