LAS VEGAS -- In the next five years, every important decision, whether it's business or personal, will be made with the assistance of IBM Watson. That's the vision of IBM president and CEO Ginni Rometty, in a keynote speech at IBM's World of Watson conference Wednesday.
Watson, the company's artificial intelligence-fueled system, is working in fields like health care, finance, entertainment and retail, connecting businesses more easily with their customers, making sense of big data and helping doctors find treatments for cancer patients.
The Watson system is set to transform how businesses function and how people live their lives. "Our goal is augmenting intelligence," Rometty said. "It is man and machine. This is all about extending your expertise. A teacher. A doctor. A lawyer. It doesn't matter what you do. We will extend it."
该公司表示，IBM的会议吸引了17,000名与会者，探讨了包括零售商，教育工作者，人力资源部门和金融机构在内的公司如何使用Watson。
参加会议的独立行业分析师杰夫·卡根（Jeff Kagan）说：“ IBM现在面临的挑战是定义市场。”“从现在起十年后，IBM会成为领导者吗？沃森今天是领导者，但这很容易……如果他们想成为领导者，他们需要创造市场和期望。”
The A.I. market is young and malleable and Watson is the biggest name, pulling in users like General Motors,GlaxoSmithKline,Staples, Teva Pharmaceuticals, the American Cancer Society and the Cleveland Clinic.
"Every industry starts with a blank slate," he added. "This is the blank slate. IBM is in a position right now to create a base everyone can build on. Some company has to create the base."
Watson technology will touch hundreds of millions of people by the end of this year alone, IBM's CEO said.
And in many cases, its user may not know it.
沃森可能嵌入Staples' new Easy Button smart device或者1-800-Flowers.com's new digital gift concierge或者GM's new OnStar Go service.
Mary Barra, chairman and CEO of General Motors, took the stage Wednesday with Rometty to talk about the company's partnership with IBM to bring a cognitive element to its OnStar mobile platform.
已经存在了大约20年的Onstar，提供了车载通信，安全性，导航，远程诊断和免提呼叫。
With Watson working behind the scenes on OnStar Go, drivers could get help avoiding traffic when they're low on gas, have a cup of coffee ordered and paid for before they get to their favorite café and get a reminder to get off the highway two exits early to make it easier to stop at the pharmacy after work.
According to Barra, the Watson-based OnStar Go will begin rolling out in cars in early 2017, and by the end of that year "millions of vehicles" will have it.
"We believe in the auto industry, in a period of five years, we'll see more change than in the last 50," Barra said. "We see that as a huge opportunity to transform personal mobility… Think about taking [OnStar] to the next level, with it knowing you and your life and what you want to accomplish, and doing it seamlessly and safely. If we can take that commute time and allow you to be more efficient, it will transform that time."
Rometty also said IBM's moonshot is focused on healthcare, and she brought on stage Satoru Miyano, a professor of the Human Genome Center at the Institute of Medical Science in the University of Tokyo.
Miyano said researchers and doctors are faced with too much data. Last year, he said, more than 200,000 papers were published about cancer alone. Meanwhile, 4 million cancer mutations also were reported.
宫诺说：“没有人能读完所有内容。”“我们觉得我们是井底的青蛙。了解癌症超出了人类的能力，但沃森可以阅读，理解和学习。为什么不使用它？”
Researchers are using Watson to cull through all the data and help clinicians find specific mutations in patients' genomes and offer guidance in treatment.
Miyano举例说明了一名66岁的白血病女性。她正在接受标准疗法，但仍然越来越糟。医生不明白为什么她病得更加病。
Using Watson, researchers analyzed all of the data they had on the woman in 10 minutes.
"Watson's results were investigated, targeting specific genes," Miyano said. "The team found she had another type of leukemia [that needed] a different therapy. She got it and she recovered completely."
罗梅蒂说，她希望沃森一生中能“改变医疗保健的面貌”。
This story, "IBM: In 5 years, Watson A.I. will be behind your every decision" was originally published byComputerworld .