IBM's Watson-based voice assistant is coming to cars and smart homes

@IBM has officially launched the @Watson Assistant at its annual Think conference, and you might encounter it in various locations in the future. It's not tied to a single or even just a few products, you see -- unlike @Siri that's tied to @Apple 's products, IBM's partners can load it onto their cars, smart home devices, office gadgets, so on and so forth. It could be infused into hospitality applications, say to serve as a smart assistant for hotels. It could have a future in retail, banking, and just about any industry, since the tech titan's partners can teach it a specific industry's lingo. One of IBM's first partners Harman will demonstrate Watson Assistant at the event through a digital cockpit aboard a Maserati GranCabrio, though the companies didn't elaborate on what it can do. In fact, IBM already released a Watson-powered voice assistant for cybersecurity early last year. You'll be able to access Watson Assistant via text or voice, depending on the device and how IBM's partner decides to incorporate it. So, you'll definitely be using voice if it's a smart speaker, but you might be able to text commands to a home device. Speaking of commands, it wasn't just designed to follow them -- it was designed to learn from your actions and remember your preferences. If you allow the Watson-powered applications you use to access each other's data through IBM Cloud, which delivers and enables Assistant's capabilities, they can learn more about you and deliver life-like conversations with context. In IBM's sample scenario, it said Watson Assistant can automatically check you into your hotel and make sure your rental car (so long as it has a Watson-powered console) is ready as soon as you walk out the airport. The car's console can suggest locations to visit en route to your hotel, as well. If the hotel uses a smart assistant powered by IBM's AI, then it can automatically tweak your room's temperature and lighting based on your preferences and even start playing music you like when you're almost there. The hotel room's (Watson-powered) wall dashboard can also display your schedule and emails before you even walk in using the electronic key automatically sent to your phone.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.engadget.com/amp/2018/03/20/ibm-watson-assistant/#ampshare=https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/20/ibm-watson-assistant/

The Doctors of Tomorrow Will Be Supercomputers

A team of researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center set out to solve this conundrum, demonstrating their findings back in November. Their solution involves using cognitive computing to sift through the overwhelming amount of data produced by scientific studies and databases in an attempt to “identify potentially relevant clinical trials or therapeutic options for cancer patients based on the genetics of their tumors.” Put simply, they want to use advanced computing techniques to more effectively identify potentially useful cancer treatments. @IBM Watson for #Genomics The researchers’ findings, published in the journal The Oncologist, suggest this new method could help physicians stay on top of current and upcoming scientific literature. To put the method to the test, the researchers enlisted the help of IBM Watson for Genomics to see if it might prove more effective than a panel of cancer experts. The team compared Watson’s ability to pick out treatments related to clinically significant genetic mutations with the findings of the board of cancer experts.  Of the 1,018 cancer cases they analyzed, the molecular tumor board identified actionable genetic alterations in 703 cases. Watson identified the same 703 cases, but also noted potential therapeutic options in 323 additional patients. Of those additions, 96 had not been previously observed to have an actionable mutation. “To be clear, the additional 323 cases of Watson-identified actionable alterations consisted of only eight genes that had not been considered actionable by the molecular tumor board,” said William Kim, MD, corresponding author on the study and an associate professor of medicine and genetics in the UNC School of Medicine. Not Quite Dr. Watson Kim went on to explain the main purpose of the study “was not designed to analyze whether or not this helps patients in regard to [the] outcome as defined by prolonged survival or treatment response.” While some of Watson’s findings were irrelevant (either because the patients didn’t have active cancer or had already died) the physicians of 47 patients with active cancer were notified of Watson’s findings.  The team’s research into cognitive computing is reminiscent of how AI’s machine learning capabilities have been used to understand suicidal behavior and to identify breast lesions that could develop into cancer. Although in terms of process, the research is most similar to astronomers using AI to find gravitational lenses — as both require culling through vast amounts of information that would overwhelm the human mind. This isn’t the only way AI is being used in the medical field, and its applications will continue to expand as the technology is developed. Microsoft already has plans to use AI to find a cure for cancer, and AI has already proven capable of predicting heart attacks more accurately than doctors. These advancements hint at a future in which your trip to the hospital puts you face to face with a robot or supercomputer rather than a flesh and blood human.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/futurism.com/doctors-tomorrow-supercomputers/amp/#ampshare=https://futurism.com/doctors-tomorrow-supercomputers/

IBM to retire two Watson IoT services

#IBM will retire #IBMWatsonIoTContextMapping Service and #IBMWatsonIoTDriverBehavior, it announced on its @IBM Cloud blog this week. As of Dec. 22, both service tiles will be removed from the #Bluemix Public catalog and customers will no longer be able to provision new instances of those services. Existing customer instances will continue to be supported until Dec. 22, 2018. The change affects all regions. For customers who want IoT Automotive platform products and applications, IBM recommended using IoT for Automotive Development Edition (part number D1PWPLL) as an alternative. IBM did not respond to request for comment on the announcements. LoRaWAN Academy partners with Carnegie Mellon to advance education The LoRaWAN Academy, a university program connecting engineers with LoRaWAN-based low power wide area network (LPWAN) technology for applied learning and advanced research, will partner with the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The partnership aims to advance education on Semtech’s LoRa devices and wireless RF technology and the global LoRaWAN open standard, according to a press release. By leveraging LoRa technology and the LoRaWAN open protocol, CMU developed its own network, OpenChirp, an open-source, crowdsourced ecosystem for students, researchers and citizen scientists to collect and share LoRaWAN-based sensor data. Users can link in their own gateways to expand the network and easily register their LoRaWAN-based devices. OpenChirp enables users to explore different types of architectures and applications that can impact society, according to the press release. Interoperability, security, private partnerships crucial to smart cities  Interoperability and scalability, a focus on cybersecurity, and collaboration with the private sector (especially with startups) will be crucial to turning the state of Virginia into a hub for smart communities, according to the Virginia Smart Communities working group, which was tasked with finding best practices to that end and to issue a report on their results. “Public and private sector support for the development of new companies focused on smart technologies and innovations could significantly advance Virginia’s efforts in regional economic development, developing solutions to address local challenges, and building companies that help establish Virginia as a global leader in smart communities,” the report’s authors wrote. FCC makes moves to speed 5G development The Federal Communications Commission, working to meet 5G spectrum needs, recently added 1.7 GHz of spectrum to 5G inventory in high-frequency bands and is seeking to increase the usability of additional spectrum for 5G in the mid-frequency, 3.5 GHz band, according to Forbes. The FCC said the move will “help ensure American leadership in wireless broadband, which represents a critical component of economic growth, job creation, public safety and global competitiveness,” according to coverage in Law360. Consumers want connected devices, despite risk Shopping for someone this weekend? Consider a connected device, which will be in demand despite the privacy and security concerns it could present. A recent survey from Keeper Security, which sells password management software, among 1,000 U.S. adults found that millennials (ages 25 to 34) were the most likely to buy IoT devices and that the majority weren’t concerned with IoT security. More than half of the respondents plan to purchase IoT toys, 23.6% will purchase wearable devices and 22.4% will purchased connected home devices.
https://www.ioti.com/automotive/ibm-retire-two-watson-iot-services

Should Spark In-Memory Run Natively On IBM i?

There’s a revolution happening in the field of data analytics, and an #opensource computing framework called Apache Spark is right smack in the middle of it. Spark is such a powerful tool that IBM elected to create a distribution of it that runs natively on its System z mainframe. Will it do the same for its baby mainframe, the IBM i? So, what is Apache Spark, and why should you care? Great questions! Let’s introduce you to Spark. Spark came out of UC Berkeley’s AMPLab about five years ago to provide a faster and easier-to-use alternative to MapReduce, which at that point was the primary computational engine for running big data processing jobs on Apache Hadoop. While Spark has a learning curve of its own, the Scala-based framework has not only replaced Java-based MapReduce, but also eclipsed Hadoop in importance in the emerging big data ecosystem. Spark is useful for developing and running all sorts of data-intensive applications, including familiar programs like ETL jobs and SQL analytics, as well as more advanced approaches like real-time stream processing, machine learning, and graph analytics. This versatility, as well as well-documented APIs for developers working in Java, Scala, Python, and R languages and its familiar DataFrame construct, have fueled Spark’s meteoritic rise in the emerging field of big data analytics. IBM took notice of Spark several years ago, and has since worked on several fronts to help accelerate the maturation of Spark on the one hand, and to embed Spark within its various products on the other, including: ML for z/OS, which executes Watson machine learning functions in a Spark runtime in the mainframe’s Linux-based System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP). Integrated Analytics System, which combines Spark, Db2 Warehouse, and its Data Science Experience, a Jupyter-based data science “notebook” for data scientists to quickly iterate with Spark scripts. Project DataWorks, which brings Spark and Watson analytics together on the Bluemix cloud. Open Data Analytics for z/OS, a runtime that combines Spark, Python, and the Anaconda package of (mostly) Python-based data science libraries from Anaconda. And Spark running directly on its Bluemix cloud. And considering that IBM opened a Spark Technology Center in 2015, it’s safe to say that IBM is quite bullish on Spark. (That’s a major understatement, actually.) But perhaps the most interesting data point for this discussion came in 2016, when Big Blue launched its z/OS Platform for Apache Spark, which is a native distribution of Spark for the System z mainframe. Native Spark On The Mainframe IBM received kudos for the work from various industry insiders who participated in this video on the z/OS Platform for Apache Spark webpage. Among those singing IBM’s praise was Bryan Smith, the former CTO and VP of R&D at Rocket Software. “IBM did a really good job in porting Apache Spark to z/OS,” Smith says. “They could have just done a very simple port. But they didn’t. They didn’t cut any corners. They really exploited the underlying hardware architecture. They’re using specialty engines. They’re using the hardware compression facilities. They’re able to leverage the 10 TB of memory that you have on a z13 machine and the . . . processors, so you can actually run those Apache Spark clusters on z/OS.” Another software vendor that appreciates having Spark running natively on z/OS is Jack Henry & Associates, the Missouri banking software developer that also has a fairly big IBM i business. “The pain point to us is getting the data out to our customers,” Todd Hill, Jack Henry’s direct of card processing, says in the video. “Currently we have data on the mainframe. We have a distributed stack for across many types of applications. What Apache Spark does for us is to keep your data centralized in the one location. So instead of moving all that data off from multiple platforms into other applications, I can run Apache Spark directly on the mainframe, at low cost, and get it built out, and get the data to the people that need it.” Mike Rohrbaugh, zSystem lead for Accenture, says having Spark on the mainframe helps by automating the generation of intelligence and reducing the complexity. “It’s just so simple to bring the analytics engine back to the data to do intelligent automation,” he says in the video. IBM i Versus The Mainframe So how does this relate to the question in the headline of this story? For starters, let’s compare the similarities and differences between the IBM i and the z/OS mainframe platforms. First, the similarities. Both the IBM i server and the z/OS mainframe are relied upon to run transactional applications that are core to the businesses that use them. Both of them are used to store structured data that’s arguably the most critical data for the businesses that use them. They both store data in the EBCDIC format, and are heralded for best-in-class reliability and security. The also both run proprietary operating systems as well as open OSes like Linux, mostly utilize older languages (RPG and Cobol, respectively), and sport text-based interfaces that use the 5250 and 3270 datastreams, respectively. Now, the differences. Mainframes have their own processor type, while IBM i runs on the more popular Power processor. The mainframe stores data many different data stores (Db2 for z, copy books, etc.), while most IBM i data is stored in Db2 or IFS. Demographically, mainframe customers tend to be the largest companies in the world, whereas IBM i has a bigger installed base among small and midsized business. There’s also a large concentration of mainframes in banking, insurance, and healthcare, whereas IBM i has a stronger foothold in manufacturing, distribution, and retail. IBM i and mainframes are strong transactional systems, and are less known for their analytical prowess. However, data analytics are becoming increasingly important in this day and age, especially as part of a company’s digital transformation strategy. The pundits often say that all companies will need data analytics strategies to effectively compete in the coming decades. That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration, but only for the timing. The question, then, becomes the places where this analytical processing is going to take happen. Today, most mainframe and IBM i shops offload it to another system. It’s fairly common for users of both mainframes and IBM i servers to set up elaborate workflows to move data from the “big iron” transactional systems to dedicated analytical systems, including massively parallel processing (MPP) column-oriented systems like Teradata, Netezza, or Vertica. With the advent of Apache Hadoop clusters running on commodity X86 processors, many companies started experimenting with Hadoop computing, which invariably introduced them to the in-memory Spark framework. IBM wants to keep those analytic workloads on the mainframe if at all possible, which is why it made Spark run natively. This not only keeps costs down for its customers, but it also make the mainframe more “sticky” and lessens the urgency to migrate data and workloads off its biggest cash cow. The question, then, is whether IBM sees similar dynamics at play for the average IBM i user. Mainframe customers, owing to their size and tendency to be in financial services, are early adopters of new technologies, like Spark. They’re arguably closer to the cutting edge than the average IBM i shop, and the dollars at stake for each mainframe client are much larger. It’s safe to say that IBM i members of the Large User Group (LUG) probably are more closely resemble their mainframe brethren, and could benefit from having a powerful, cutting-edge tool like Spark running natively on the IBM i. They’re more apt to have a bigger investment in separate analytical environments, be it a Teradata machine or a Hadoop cluster. They’re also more likely to have some data science Skunk Works project running somewhere in their shop, and are more likely to already be running Spark in Linux, which is where it was originally developed to run. Spark On IBM i While Spark may not be on the radar of the average IBM i shop yet, folks within IBM are starting to ask questions about whether Spark will impact the IBM i installed base, and if it’s going to be important to them, how it ought to be introduced. If the company is planning to support Spark natively on IBM i, the company isn’t saying publically, which is not surprising. What we do know, however, is that IBM executives are at least talking about the prospect of bringing Spark to IBM i in some way, shape, or form. “It’s part of some discussions,” IBM’s product development manager for Db2 Web Query Robert Bestgen recently told IT Jungle. There are two general options for bringing Spark to the platform: porting Spark to run natively on IBM i or running in a Linux partition running on Power Systems. Spark was written in Scala, and therefore can run within a Java virtual machine (JVM), which the IBM i platform obviously runs. It may not be a stretch to get it running there, but there could be other factors that come into play, such as IBM i’s single level storage architecture, and how that maps to how Spark tries to keep everything in RAM (but will spill out to disk if needed). Should the Spark port be native? “Depends on who you talk to,” Bestgen said. The widely held thinking within IBM is that the Linux route makes more practical sense – if Spark is to come to IBM i at all (which, as far as we know, hasn’t been decided). “If you back up [and look at it] from an IBM i perspective, IBM would say that IBM i is part of the Power Systems portfolio, or what we call Cognitive Systems now,” Bestgen says. “For Power Systems, those platforms [like Hadoop and Spark] tend to run best on a… Linux kind of environment. That’s what folks think about it.” Few IBM i shops today are even running Linux partitions. According to HelpSystems‘ 2017 IBM i Marketplace study, fewer than 8 percent of organizations are running Linux next to IBM i on a Power Systems box, while about 9 percent are running Linux on other Power boxes. AIX’s penetration is about 50 percent higher, for what it’s worth. There’s a case to be made that IBM i shops are lousy at figuring out how to leverage the wealth of available tools for Linux, even after IBM went through the trouble of supporting little endian, X86-style Linux to go along with its existing support for big endian Linux within Power. “One of the areas that IBM could do a better job selling is saying, you seem to be willing to run Linux on a different platform. Why not run it on the platform that you have in your system now?” Bestgen says. At the end of the day, there are a lot of unanswered questions, including whether the IBM i installed base needs or wants such a powerful tool as Spark, let alone how it should run. So the question to the answer in the headline is no. “I don’t think we’re there yet in terms of running those things natively on i,” Bestgen says.

https://www.itjungle.com/2017/11/06/spark-memory-run-natively-ibm/

Hitachi preparing AI for enterprise storage

#AI continues to move up the stack from drives to racks to whole storage arrays. @Hitachi is expected to make an AI announcement this winter and recently hired away an @IBMWatson leader.
#Storagetechnology, if industry visionaries are correct, will enable magical advancements in #analytics, #bigdata, and the #InternetofThings—but there's another story to tell by going the other direction to see what these applications can do for the storage.

It's not a one-way street. Storage arrays typically grow bigger and faster on a fairly consistent basis, but in the past few years they've also started growing smarter.

There is plenty of precedent. There has long been intelligence inside individual drives. More recently, machine learning started coming to data center racks, not unlike the smart refrigerators found at Best Buy. Storage management concepts such as deduplication and tiered backup are also constantly becoming more automated.

SEE: IT leader's guide to the future of artificial intelligence (Tech Pro Research)

The storage industry will get an artificial intelligence jolt from Hitachi Vantara in the next few months. Vantara is a recent merger of the Japanese conglomerate's storage, analytics, and IoT divisions, and is unique compared to Dell-EMC, HP, and IBM because of its focus on industrial competitors such as General Electric (from where Vantara recently poached its new chief strategy officer). More compelling, though, is Vantara's other new hire—former IBM Watson vice president John Murphy.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/hitachi-preparing-ai-for-enterprise-storage/

Is IBM's Watson Overhyped & Soon to Be Outdone?

#IBMWatson may be the first name that comes to mind when you think #artificialintelligence, ever since it beat out a human on the Jeopardy! quiz show back in 2011, but skepticism is mounting around whether the company will be the best -- or most profitable -- name in #AI as the market picks up traction. #IBMCorp. (NYSE: IBM) makes a big deal about Watson. In fact, it's published over 200 press releases with Watson in the headline in the past five years and mentioned it at least 200 times in its prepared remarks on earnings reports since 2013, as well as investing more than $20 billion, according to Jefferies & Co. Inc. . The investment bank, however, believes the AI platform will struggle to keep up with competition, as the services component of AI deployments and the cost of doing business present problems for Watson adoption. (See IBM Watson Faces Tough Road – Analyst.) "Our checks suggest that while IBM offers one of the more mature cognitive computing platforms today, the hefty services component of many AI deployments will be a hindrance to adoption," James Kisner, Jefferies senior vice president, IT hardware and communications infrastructure equities research, writes in a research note this week. "We also believe IBM appears outgunned in the war for AI talent and will likely see increasing competition. Finally, our analysis suggests that the returns on IBM's investments aren't likely to be above the cost of capital." Jefferies acknowledges that Watson remains one of the most complete cognitive platforms available on the market today, but it sees it struggling to attract interest from companies that don't want to endure the significant consulting work to gather and curate the data required to take advantage of it. (See IBM Leads $15M Funding Round for AI Programming Startup.) Other companies are also stepping up their AI recruitment efforts -- Jefferies says that Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) has ten times more job listings than IBM. (See IBM: AI Needs More Than Just Technology.) What's more, companies have more choices when it comes to APIs. IBM dropped its pricing for Watson Conversations by 70% back in October, which -- in part -- leads Jefferies to determine that IBM barely recoups its cost of capital from AI investments. Jefferies estimates Watson plus associated pull-through revenue will only contribute between 3% to 5% to consensus earnings per share in 2019. (See Element AI Raises $102M to Bring AI to All.) It sees competitors Nvidia Corp. (Nasdaq: NVDA), Pure Storage and, to a lesser degree, Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: MLNX) gaining the most from both the uptick in AI adoption and in IBM's struggles.

http://www.lightreading.com/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning/is-ibms-watson-overhyped-and-soon-to-be-outdone-/d/d-id/734540

IBM Watson Internet of Things Named a Leader in IDC MarketScape for 2017 Worldwide IoT Platforms Watson IoT Platform on IBM Cloud Recognized

ARMONK, N.Y., July 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- #IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that #IBMWatson Internet of Things ( #IoT ) has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide #IoT Platforms 2017 Vendor Assessment (Doc # US42033517, July 2017). The report highlights IBM's Watson IoT Platform on IBM Cloud, which today is being used by thousands of clients across six continents including BMW, KONE, HARMAN and more.

Right now, everyday objects, from toasters and contact lenses, to hospital beds, factory floors, elevators and cars, are not only becoming connected and digitized, they are creating data. IBM has invested $3 billion to bring cognitive computing to IoT and create a portfolio that helps clients make sense of this data to create a safer world, better consumer experiences and levels of service excellence that have never been achieved before.

The new IDC MarketScape report evaluated 12 IoT platform software providers, examining specific attributes such as product functionality breadth, protocol/device support, integration capabilities, edge support, breadth of complementary portfolio offerings and more. The report named IBM Watson IoT a Leader stating that "IoT is one of the lynchpins of IBM's strategy and is critical in helping its customers on their journeys to becoming cognitive businesses."

"As the world becomes more digitalized and connected, the opportunity for businesses to transform has never been more real. At IBM, we not only saw these signs early on, we committed ourselves to leading this next industry revolution," said Harriet Green, General Manager, IBM Watson Internet of Things, Customer Engagement and Education. "To be named a leader by the IDC MarketScape is an amazing honor that validates our efforts to helping companies achieve their goals whether its connecting devices, building IoT apps, solving industry specific business problems or transforming their companies and industries."

The new IDC MarketScape report cites key areas of strength including IBM's muti-layered security strategy, demonstrable cognitive analytics capabilities from Watson and its public, private and on-premise deployment options and global reach which together meet the needs of local companies and multinational companies that face strict regulatory compliance regarding data privacy. The report also notes that "IBM has made investments into innovative technologies that will provide value above and beyond what a standard IoT platform may provide (Node-RED for rapidly building IoT applications, Blockchain for supply chain management, and payments processing)."

IBM commitment to IoT innovation continues in its Global Watson IoT Headquarters Center in Munich, Germany. Opened in 2016, the facility features the industry's first-ever cognitive collaboratory. This fast-growing ecosystem includes key clients from all over the world - BMW, CAP Gemini, BNP Parnibas, Avnet and Tech Mahindra, Fortiss – who work hand in hand with 1,000 IBM researches, designers and developers to tackle industry specific IoT challenges.

To download an excerpt of the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide IoT Platforms 2017 Vendor Assessment, click here.

To view the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide IoT Platforms 2017 Vendor Assessment infographic, click here.

About IDC MarketScape 
IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT (information and communications technology) suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor's position within a given market.  IDC MarketScape provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT and telecommunications vendors can be meaningfully compared.  The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360-degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors.  

About IBM Watson IoT
IBM is an established leader in the Internet of Things with more than 6,000 client engagements in 170 countries, a growing ecosystem of over 1,400 partners and more 750 IoT patents which together help to draw actionable insight from billions of connected devices, sensors and systems around the world.

http://news.sys-con.com/node/4120677

IBM's new Watson-powered AI assistant helps corporate IT better manage endpoints

On Monday, at the 2017 #IBM #InterConnectconference in Las Vegas, IBM unveiled a new, cloud-based cognitive assistant that it said will better help IT professionals secure endpoints like smartphones, laptops, and #IoT products. The assistant, which is powered by #IBMWatson, is formally known as the #MaaS360Advisor and is part of IBM's #MaaS360unifiedendpointmanagement ( #UEM ) platform offered through the #IBMCloud. According to an IBM press release, "The MaaS360 Advisor will use machine learning to analyze devices on the network and recommend policies, patches and customized best practices to better manage and protect them." Over 80% of companies are already using AI and cognitive solutions to more effectively insight the data collected from their endpoints, according to the IBM Mobile Vision 2020 Study, so it makes sense that they could be using similar tools to protect those same endpoints.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/ibms-new-watson-powered-ai-assistant-helps-corporate-it-better-manage-endpoints/

Google and IBM: We Want Artificial Intelligence to Help You, Not Replace You

In an era of maturing #artificialintelligence technology, what does the future of the corporation look like? Will the rise of robots help us do our jobs better, or harm them? This dynamic has become a mainstay of the dialogue around #AI, with voices from technology visionaries such as #BillGates and #StephenHawking weighing in. But at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International Summit in Hong Kong on Tuesday, leaders at two of the world’s most powerful tech giants pushed back on those concerns. AI is intended to help—not hinder—the human workforce, they said. “AI is actually not new for us,” said Vanitha Narayanan, chairman of #IBM India, whose #Watson #supercomputer has risen to global acclaim. But “technology always comes way ahead of policy.” #Google

http://fortune.com/2017/03/02/google-ibm-artificial-intelligence/

Tony Stark Has Jarvis. And Now IBM Has Havyn

LAST OCTOBER, 11-YEAR-OLD Evan Spisak wandered down to his father’s basement workshop to help out on a weekend project, a time-honored tradition in homes across the country. But Evan’s father, Mike, is an #IBM master inventor. And what they came up with was no birdhouse or pinewood derby car. It was #Havyn, a homegrown voice assistant that taps into IBM’s enormous cybersecurity infrastructure, putting #Watson ’s AI smarts at their literal beck and call. While Spisak likens his creation to Tony Stark’s “Jarvis” #AIassistant, the shortest path to understanding its importance isn’t though comics mythology. Think of Havyn, instead, as a highly specific analog to #Amazon ’s #Alexa voice assistant. Instead of connecting users to Spotify or online shopping carts, it helps fight cyberthreats. And while Havyn may have started as spare-time tinkering, a dozen analysts at IBM’s X-Force Command Centers—the G.I. Joe name the company gives its security operations hubs—in Atlanta, Boulder, Poland, and Costa Rica are already testing it in the real world. Some fathers and sons bond over football. Some like to cook. Evan and Mike Spisak invented an interface that could help fundamentally improve how cybersecurity works.

https://www.wired.com/2017/02/ibm-havyn-cybersecurity/

IBM old guard dropping like flies in POWER and cloud restructure

#IBM software veteran #RobertLeBlanc is stepping down after just two years heading the firm's growing cloud business. Chief executive Ginni Rometty announced LeBlanc's planned departure on Wednesday as part of a restructuring of IBM's cloud and POWER hardware units. LeBlanc, who joined IBM in 1981, will retire in June. IBM has named its vice president and director of IBM research Arvind Krishna as senior vice president, Hybrid Cloud. Krishna will report to senior vice president, Cognitive Solutions and IBM Research John Kelly. Rometty praised LeBlanc as "a founding father of IBM's software business" whose imprint on IBM ran "much deeper". He was named head of IBM's newly formed cloud unit in January 2015 and in November 2016 IBM merged the public cloud platform with Watson. As is so often the IBM way, LeBlanc served in a number of executive posts. These included senior vice president of middleware, general manager for worldwide software sales, general manager for application integration and middleware, and general manager for Tivoli. It was during the 1990s that LeBlanc helped push IBM's e-business initiative, a campaign that helped transform the perception of IBM from stodgy mainframe provider into a web-savvy businesses player just as the internet took off. His exit comes as IBM reported its cloud revenues of $4.2bn, up 33 per cent in its recent, fourth quarter. IBM was grilled, however, on when Watson would actually start to make money. His exit follows the departures of fellow old-guard members last year of software-group chief Steve Mills, who left after 43 years, chief technology officer and cloud unit general manager Danny Sabbah, who had 30 years with IBM, and security group general manager Brendan Hannigan. In other changes, Bob Picciano, senior vice president for IBM Analytics, is on the move too. Picciano will be joining IBM Systems in the new role of senior vice president reporting to IBM Systems senior vice president Tom Rosamilia. "We are aggressively reinventing our systems portfolio for cloud, data and AI," Rometty said. "The centrepiece of Cognitive Systems is our Power franchise, which is vital to so many clients and ecosystem partners. Having envisioned and transformed our data and analytics portfolio, Bob is ideally suited for this role." General manager for POWER Douglas Balog has been named general manager, Storage Client Success leading storage sales, reporting to Picciano. Rosamilia said Balog had been critical to transforming the foundation for POWER upon which IBM would build. He called storage "another critically important opportunity". ®

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/25/ibm_old_guard_depleted_further_in_big_blue_power_and_cloud_reorg/

IBM Quietly Builds Its Video Cloud

Like its competitors, #IBM is acquiring and building a #videostack. Instead of focusing on media execution, however, IBM is using #Watson and #dataanalytics to improve the relevancy of video content, ads and delivery models. “In ad-supported video, how do you make ultra-targeted ads tailored down to the individual for customer acquisition?” said David Mowrey, VP of strategic planning for IBM Cloud Video. “In the subscription video-on-demand world, you might have to make really complex decisions about user experience to [stave off] churn.” IBM has filed video patents for decades, but it only formalized its Cloud Video unit about a year ago. IBM Cloud Video combines video assets from acquired companies like Clearleap, a streaming video workflow and monetization tool, and Ustream, a live video-streaming platform. Clients include Lionsgate, Scripps Networks Interactive and Viceland.

https://adexchanger.com/digital-tv/ibm-quietly-builds-video-cloud/

Have we reached Peak Hadoop?

The fact that #IBM is not using #Hadoop for its new #Watson Data Platform cloud service provides a fresh reminder that the Hadoop vs. Spark debate isn't dead. But don't count Hadoop out. Its data management capabilities are not yet being matched by #Spark or other fit-for-purpose big data cloud services.

Leaving Las Vegas, or more specifically IBM's World of Watson, we're reflecting on the progress that IBM's made towards delivering cognitive computing and the reality that the onramp remains a long one. For the most part, were seeing the steady rollout of point services, such as the Watson Virtual Agent reported by Larry Dignan that offers modest chatbot capabilities.

But the biggest release of this cycle, which IBM has been taking a rolling thunder strategy, is what's now finally called the Watson Data Platform. My fellow Big on Data blogger George Anadiotis, covered the initial announcement, which was all about the strategy (and an interim product name), while Larry's report documented the final announcement.

At the conference, we had a chance to take a deep dive into the new platform, not to mention stepping up to the bar and letting Watson pick out a craft brew based on your profile. For the record, Watson blew it in deciphering my taste, concluding that I prefer lagers because I like blackberries, chocolate cake, and drinking beers in wintertime. We'll do a much deeper dive later this week into the Watson Data Platform, and what it means for IBM's big data strategy,

http://www.zdnet.com/article/have-we-reached-peak-hadoop/

Did Microsoft just outwit Silicon Valley’s coolest tech startup?

I was shocked to read today that #IBM and Slack are partnering so that #Slack can use #Watson to improve their Slackbot’s cognitive capabilities. It seemed like Slack may be outsourcing the one thing that could become their most valuable strength. Except as I thought about it more, I wasn’t surprised. Slack may have been forced into this deal. I never thought I would write something like this, but Microsoft has just won a big strategic round against one of the Valley’s coolest tech startups. Here is what I think is happening.

I live pretty deeply in this world. Talla has launched three different Slack bots. But ultimately, we noticed that Slack was coming under pretty intense competition — most notably from Microsoft, but also, Google has to play here someday, right? Surely at some point Allo, or something like it, gets into Google Apps. So we made the strategic decision that messaging wouldn’t be a winner-take-all market, and possibly not even a small oligopoly. It may be very fragmented. Better to take an approach that plays to that fragmentation, which is why we ultimately made a different bet on a cross-platform ChatOps tool for HR teams.

http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/27/did-microsoft-just-outwit-silicon-valleys-coolest-tech-startup/amp/

Whirlpool Corporation, IBM Collaborate on Cognitive Solutions for Connected Appliances

BENTON HARBOR, Mich., Jan. 6, 2016/PRNewswire/ -- #Whirlpool Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of major home appliances, and #IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new collaboration to connect Whirlpool connected home appliances with IBM #Watson services, including cognitive analytics, to provide more personalized services to consumers.

"IBM's cognitive analytics is a strong fit for Whirlpool Corporation," said Laurent Borne, General Manager, Connected Appliances, Whirlpool Corporation. "Saving energy and water, caring for their families through mobile efficiencies – these are the benefits we're hoping to bring to consumers. IBM's expertise in data storage, and cloud computing ensures we'll continue to bring our consumers relevant technologies in the future, as well as deliver new, innovative, and distinctive experiences for the consumer."

In step with its position as an industry leader, Whirlpool is gearing up for a market on the cusp of increased demand for intuitive, connected home appliances. Through IBM Watson services, including cognitive analytics, data management and protection, Whirlpool Corporation can better serve the consumer as connected home appliances continue to evolve. The collaboration will also focus, in part, on the importance and intricacies of big data; Whirlpool Corporation is using IBM Cloud Business Solutions to harness real-time data and insights from appliances to drive product optimization or enhance and introduce new benefits customized/tailored to consumers' unique needs.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/whirlpool-corporation-ibm-collaborate-on-cognitive-solutions-for-connected-appliances-300200163.html