IBM’s artificial intelligence system Watson has been put to various uses, including powering self-driving vehicles and helping in the fight against cancer. Now, IBM Watson’s Chief Marketing Officer Steve Gold has explained why data from Twitter could help to fuel Watson’s cognitive capabilities.
In an interview for Mashable, Gold batted away a question about whether IBM would be interested in acquiring Twitter, insisting: “We don’t comment on rumors.” However, the tech giant clearly remains interested in Twitter’s data, with Gold saying that the site “really talks to the consumer and the consumer mindset”, and offers a rare opportunity for getting “a pulse of the marketplace.”
He added that the microblogging site, with which IBM partnered for data analytics in 2014, “represents insights that I wouldn’t necessarily glean from other sources. That’s really why data at large, but Twitter specifically, is interesting.” While Gold didn’t specify purposes that IBM would put Twitter data to in future, he cited the example of health-related data helping with the development of a healthcare app.
While the typically secretive Apple’s own plans in the artificial intelligence space aren’t entirely clear, you can read what we do know by picking up the new issue of AppleMagazine. This issue is available for your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch when you subscribe.
