![]() And the products that have emerged from IBM's Watson Health division are nothing like the brilliant AI doctor that was once envisioned: They're more like AI assistants that can perform certain routine tasks. The company spent billions on acquisitions to bolster its internal efforts, but insiders say the acquired companies In the eight years since, IBM has trumpeted many more high-profile efforts to develop AI-powered medical technology-many of which have fizzled, and a few of which have failed spectacularly. In fact, the projects that IBM announced that first day did not yield commercial products. Watson's first commercial offerings for health care would be available in 18 to 24 months, the company promised. IBM would take the breakthrough technology it showed off on television-mainly, the ability to understand natural language-and apply it to medicine. ![]() Jeopardy!, IBM announced a new career path for its AI quiz-show winner: It would become an AI doctor. The day after Watson thoroughly defeated two human champions in the game of IBM's bold attempt to revolutionize health care began in 2011. And in trying to apply Watson to cancer treatment, one of medicine's biggest challenges, IBM encountered a fundamental mismatch between the way machines learn and the way doctors work. Outside of corporate headquarters, however, IBM has discovered that its powerful technology is no match for the messy reality of today's health care system. If Watson could bring that instant expertise to hospitals and clinics all around the world, it seemed possible that the AI could reduce diagnosis errors, optimize treatments, and even alleviate doctor shortages-not by replacing doctors but by helping them do their jobs faster and better. It could crack a tough case in mere seconds. Within the comfortable confines of the dome, Watson never failed to impress: Its memory banks held knowledge of every rare disease, and its processors weren't susceptible to the kind of cognitive bias that can throw off doctors. In the demo, Watson took a bizarre collection of patient symptoms and came up with a list of possible diagnoses, each annotated with Watson's confidence level and links to supporting medical literature. One dazzling 2014 demonstration of Watson's brainpower showed off its potential to transform medicine using AI-a goal that IBM CEO Virginia Rometty often calls the company's moon shot. ![]() It's the closest you can get, IBMers sometimes say, to being inside Watson's electronic brain. There, in the darkened space, visitors sit on swiveling stools while fancy graphics flash around the curved screens covering the walls. Inside the glassy tower in lower Manhattan, IBMers can bring prospective clients and visiting journalists into the “immersion room," which resembles a miniature planetarium. In 2014, IBM opened swanky new headquarters for its artificial intelligence division, known as IBM Watson. ![]()
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