Online supercomputers that learn from mistakes will drive the next hi-tech revolution
An online supercomputer with software capable of learning from its mistakes will soon be available for businesses and individuals. Jamie Carter takes a look at a hi-tech revolution
Data is everywhere. We live our lives online, and voluntarily give websites and retailers our details in exchange for something. It's how we live our lives, and it's fast creating the age of "big data" where websites can track and predict our every action and desire.
But how do we crunch all that data to truly give the internet a mind of its own that we can all use? Step forward the supercomputer, the coal in the furnace of the internet that will drive the next revolution.
Supercomputers are what, one day, will make Google provide accurate answers to questions, and perhaps even guess the question.
When future generations look back to where the internet started, it's likely that they'll pick November 2013 as the point where a tangle of information became a living, breathing service indistinguishable from modern life. For last year saw the arrival online of IBM's Watson, a supercomputer that promises to bring artificial intelligence (AI) into the mainstream by making it into an app.
IBM has created a developer cloud for Watson so that apps for both people and businesses can be created that rely on its unique cognitive computing skills. Forget about robots and sentient machines - that isn't going to happen. Watson is all about software, but it goes way beyond mere logic.
Watson could be used to search through millions of pages of academic research and drug trials, something a human could never do or keep up with, and in double-quick time
Reasoning, perception, social and cultural awareness are all within its grasp, but the kingpin of the new age of the internet is Watson's ability to learn from its mistakes. The end result could be computers not with AI, but GI - general intelligence.
