Upgrade to PRO for Only $50/Year—Limited-Time Offer! 🔥
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
A Computer Called "Watson"
Search
James Thomas
September 17, 2012
Technology
1
460
A Computer Called "Watson"
LondonJS talk on the technology behind IBM Watson.
James Thomas
September 17, 2012
Tweet
Share
More Decks by James Thomas
See All by James Thomas
Apache OpenWhisk - Pluggable Event Providers
jthomas
0
440
Confessions of a (nervous) public speaker
jthomas
0
130
Serverless Machine Learning with TensorFlow.js
jthomas
1
770
Serverless: The Missing Manual
jthomas
1
2.3k
Serverless Swift with Apache OpenWhisk
jthomas
0
300
Serverless Backends and APIs using Swift and Apache OpenWhisk
jthomas
0
100
Predicting the impact of serverless computing, lessons from economic history
jthomas
0
130
Taming Serverless Dragons - Multi-Provider Serverless Apps
jthomas
0
3.2k
Microservices Without Servers
jthomas
2
2.8k
Other Decks in Technology
See All in Technology
エンジニアとPMのドメイン知識の溝をなくす、 AIネイティブな開発プロセス
applism118
4
1.2k
Debugging Edge AI on Zephyr and Lessons Learned
iotengineer22
0
180
Karate+Database RiderによるAPI自動テスト導入工数をCline+GitLab MCPを使って2割削減を目指す! / 20251206 Kazuki Takahashi
shift_evolve
PRO
1
720
年間40件以上の登壇を続けて見えた「本当の発信力」/ 20251213 Masaki Okuda
shift_evolve
PRO
1
120
AWS CLIの新しい認証情報設定方法aws loginコマンドの実態
wkm2
6
710
Kiro Autonomous AgentとKiro Powers の紹介 / kiro-autonomous-agent-and-powers
tomoki10
0
430
[CMU-DB-2025FALL] Apache Fluss - A Streaming Storage for Real-Time Lakehouse
jark
0
120
20251209_WAKECareer_生成AIを活用した設計・開発プロセス
syobochim
7
1.5k
Lessons from Migrating to OpenSearch: Shard Design, Log Ingestion, and UI Decisions
sansantech
PRO
1
120
Lambdaの常識はどう変わる?!re:Invent 2025 before after
iwatatomoya
1
480
新 Security HubがついにGA!仕組みや料金を深堀り #AWSreInvent #regrowth / AWS Security Hub Advanced GA
masahirokawahara
1
1.9k
Sansanが実践する Platform EngineeringとSREの協創
sansantech
PRO
2
830
Featured
See All Featured
How GitHub (no longer) Works
holman
316
140k
Build The Right Thing And Hit Your Dates
maggiecrowley
38
3k
ReactJS: Keep Simple. Everything can be a component!
pedronauck
666
130k
Automating Front-end Workflow
addyosmani
1371
200k
Fantastic passwords and where to find them - at NoRuKo
philnash
52
3.5k
Reflections from 52 weeks, 52 projects
jeffersonlam
355
21k
Bash Introduction
62gerente
615
210k
[Rails World 2023 - Day 1 Closing Keynote] - The Magic of Rails
eileencodes
37
2.6k
Sharpening the Axe: The Primacy of Toolmaking
bcantrill
46
2.6k
The Pragmatic Product Professional
lauravandoore
37
7.1k
Typedesign – Prime Four
hannesfritz
42
2.9k
The Illustrated Children's Guide to Kubernetes
chrisshort
51
51k
Transcript
A Computer Called “Watson” James Thomas, IBM Emerging Tech COVER
PHOTO Add cover photo Monday, 17 September 2012
GARY KASPAROV VERSUS “DEEP BLUE” MAY 1997 Monday, 17 September
2012
BLUE GENE DECEMBER 1999 Monday, 17 September 2012
“Fast forward to 2004...” Monday, 17 September 2012
JEOPARDY QUIZ SHOW Monday, 17 September 2012
KEN JENNINGS CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS Monday, 17 September 2012
KEN JENNINGS CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS KEN’S PERFORMANCE Monday, 17 September
2012
What if we build a computer to play Jeopardy? Monday,
17 September 2012
What if we build a computer to play Jeopardy? It’s
way too hard Monday, 17 September 2012
Jeopardy! Finite, mathematically defined search space Limited number of moves
and states Symbols completed grounded in mathematical rules of the games Chess Enormous problem domain and search space Source material is inherently unstructured information Advanced natural language processing Monday, 17 September 2012
BASELINE PERFORMANCE INITIAL EXPERIMENT Monday, 17 September 2012
“Fast forward to 2007...” Monday, 17 September 2012
DR. DAVID FERRUCCI - “WATSON” TEAM DIRECTOR 2007 - 2011
Monday, 17 September 2012
SIMULATING JEOPARDY! MATCHES Monday, 17 September 2012
BASELINE PERFORMANCE INITIAL EXPERIMENT Monday, 17 September 2012
WATSON WAS READY FEBRUARY 2011 Monday, 17 September 2012
Watson Jeopardy! Challenge February 14-16 2011. Ken Jennings Brad Rutter
Monday, 17 September 2012
WATSON 1 - HUMANS 0 FEBRUARY 16, 2011 Monday, 17
September 2012
“Its largest airport is named for a WWII hero; its
second largest, for a WWII battle” Category: US Cities Monday, 17 September 2012
“Its largest airport is named for a WWII hero; its
second largest, for a WWII battle” Category: US Cities Watson: Toronto Monday, 17 September 2012
How does it work? Monday, 17 September 2012
WATSON ARCHITECTURE - DEEPQA MASSIVELY PARALLEL PROBABILISTIC EVIDENCE-BASED ARCHITECTURE Monday,
17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURE PHASES Question Analysis Primary Search Candidate Answer Generation
Evidence Retrieval Evidence Scoring Merging and Ranking Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES QUESTION ANALYSIS CATEGORY: CAPITALS QUESTION: WHAT IS
THE CAPITAL OF SAMOA? Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES QUESTION ANALYSIS CATEGORY: POETS & POETRY QUESTION:
HE WAS A BANK CLERK IN THE YUKON BEFORE HE PUBLISHED “SONGS OF SOURDOUGH” IN 1907. Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES QUESTION ANALYSIS CATEGORY: POETS & POETRY QUESTION:
HE WAS A BANK CLERK IN THE YUKON BEFORE HE PUBLISHED “SONGS OF SOURDOUGH” IN 1907. DISCOVER: FOCUS Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES QUESTION ANALYSIS CATEGORY: POETS & POETRY QUESTION:
HE WAS A BANK CLERK IN THE YUKON BEFORE HE PUBLISHED “SONGS OF SOURDOUGH” IN 1907. DISCOVER: LEXICAL ANSWER TYPE Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES QUESTION ANALYSIS CATEGORY: POETS & POETRY QUESTION:
HE WAS A BANK CLERK IN THE YUKON BEFORE HE PUBLISHED “SONGS OF SOURDOUGH” IN 1907. DISCOVER: RELATIONSHIPS Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES QUESTION ANALYSIS CATEGORY: POETS & POETRY QUESTION:
HE WAS A BANK CLERK IN THE YUKON BEFORE HE PUBLISHED “SONGS OF SOURDOUGH” IN 1907. DISCOVER: QUESTION CLASS Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES HYPOTHESIS GENERATION Hypothesis generation consists of two
phases... Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES HYPOTHESIS GENERATION Primary Search Monday, 17 September
2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES HYPOTHESIS GENERATION Data Sources - Unstructured Wikipedia
IMDb Encyclopaedias Dictionaries Thesauri Literary Works Newswire Articles Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES HYPOTHESIS GENERATION Data Sources - Structured DBpedia
Wordnet YAGO Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES HYPOTHESIS GENERATION Candidate Answer Generation Monday, 17
September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES EVIDENCE RETRIEVAL Watson then searches for additional
evidence... Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES EVIDENCE SCORING Deep Scoring Monday, 17 September
2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES EVIDENCE SCORING 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1
Temporal Geospatial LAT Popularity Deep Scoring Christopher Columbus Vasco De Gamma Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES FINAL MERGING AND RANKING Answer Merging Monday,
17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES FINAL MERGING AND RANKING Answer Merging Monday,
17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES FINAL MERGING AND RANKING Answer Ranking ISAAC
NEWTON [0.10, 0.45 ... 0.78, 0.12] ??? ANSWER SCORES RANK EDMOND HALLEY [0.31, 0.52 ... 0.08, 0.72] ??? WILHELM TEMPEL [0.21, 0.54 ... 0.18, 0.92] ??? PETER SELLERS [0.14, 0.04 ... 0.25, 0.41] ??? Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES FINAL MERGING AND RANKING Monday, 17 September
2012
DEEPQA ARCHITECTURAL PHASES FINAL MERGING AND RANKING Answer Ranking ISAAC
NEWTON [0.10 ... 0.12] 3 ANSWER SCORES RANK EDMOND HALLEY [0.31 ... 0.72] 1 WILHELM TEMPEL [0.21 ... 0.92] 2 PETER SELLERS [0.14 ... 0.41] 4 0.14 CONFIDENCE 0.78 0.34 0.04 Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA PERFORMANCE SCALING CHALLENGES Need to answer within a few
seconds.... Monday, 17 September 2012
DEEPQA PERFORMANCE SCALING CHALLENGES Need to answer within a few
seconds.... Early implementation took over two hours Monday, 17 September 2012
SCALING WATSON Monday, 17 September 2012
WATSON HARDWARE NINETY POWER 750 SERVERS 2880 POWER7 PROCESSOR CORES
16 TERABYTES OF RAM Monday, 17 September 2012
WATSON 1 - HUMANS 0 FEBRUARY 16, 2011 Monday, 17
September 2012
PUTTING WATSON TO WORK What’s next? Monday, 17 September 2012
PUTTING WATSON TO WORK HEALTHCARE Monday, 17 September 2012
QUESTIONS? Monday, 17 September 2012