IBM's Watson Had to Clean Up Its Act

You might have missed the blogs I've posted over the past couple of years about Watson, IBM's thinking and learning computer. The supercomputer has the ability to get information from all sorts of sources, both online and through information fed to it by its programmers. While it might not sound like a big deal, in terms of technological innovation, Watson is a huge leap forward. Not only does it possess huge amounts of information, Watson is able to learn and understand human language in order to figure out what type of answer someone is looking for. Although it's a fairly simple task for you or me, for a computer, it's amazing. Traditionally, computer programs use some version of an “if this – then this” algorithm. For example, on your computer, if you click a certain link something specific happens.

Watson, on the other hand, is able to understand complex questions and even slang, and employ critical thinking to come up with the correct answer. Watson's programmers were so proud of their creation that they even decided to put the supercomputer to the test by making it play the popular trivia game “Jeopardy.” Since many of the answers on the game show are cleverly worded clues, it wasn't a game like chess, where a computer would have a clear advantage. To the surprise of the viewing audience, Watson defeated long standing Jeopardy champ, Ken Jennings in a huge win.

After the show finished, the programmers at IBM set out to find new ways to use Watson. For a while, he was learning about healthcare and being used as a model for what could possibly become a valuable computerized second opinion.

Although Watson has grown up quite a bit, his programmers found that building the most intelligent supercomputer is a whole lot like raising a child. In spite of his amazing qualifications, he wasn't able to get a health care job until his programmers removed the Urban Dictionary from it's knowledge stores. While understanding polite slang like “LOL” or “cool story, bro” was important for understanding questions on Jeopardy, the supercomputer wasn't able to differentiate between what words are rude in certain situations and which ones are simply profane. The programmers realized they had a huge problem when they asked Watson a convoluted question and he replied “Bullshit.”

Now, however, the programmers at IBM have removed the Urban Dictionary and deleted any memory of profanity from Watson's database in hopes that now he'll be ready to get a job.

I know that many people can empathize with poor Watson. He has the intelligence to do any job put in front of him – even if the job is destroying humans on game shows – and yet he still has to clean up his language before trying to impress an employer.

If Watson can do it, so can we. Now, all I have to do is find my programmer and get those pesky words deleted from my database.

Image Source: IBM