IBM is betting big on Watson

There were two news stories from IBM in regards to Watson last week. The first one was about a partnership between IBM and Twitter. The news release is full of great promises – Analytics Services on Cloud, which should deliver cognitive services in the palm of your hand; predictive analytics; visualization. Between Twitter and Watson, you’ll be able to keep the pulse on the planet.

Unleashing Watson’s mind on the endless stream of Tweets, reminds me of a quote from Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Marvin, the robot: ‘It gives me a headache just trying to think down to your level.’

The second news story is about a partnership between IBM and Repsol – Spain’s largest company. Both companies will collaborate on applications to find future caches of oil.

IBM is pouring resources into these projects and aiming to generate $10 billion in revenue in 10 years. IBM wants to expand the offering to medicine, banking, consumer products, and transportation. Should IBM succeed, we all will benefit.