Watson supercomputer may soon participate in business meetings

MIT Technology Review : Researchers at IBM are fine-tuning the Watson supercomputer to be able to listen in on business meetings and weigh in on decisions. According to IBM, Watson is a next-generation artificially intelligent machine that can understand human speech, make decisions based on available data, and learn as it goes. Watson has already demonstrated its cognitive technology when it successfully competed in 2012 against two human players on the TV show Jeopardy! In a recent demonstration, IBM researchers tested Watson’s business acumen by enlisting its help in creating a short list of companies to acquire. Watson helped winnow down the list through its analysis of both written information and the researchers’ verbal discussion. Watson could also serve a number of other functions, including monitoring people’s contributions to the discussion and fact-checking assertions.