IBM, top universities team up to research artificial intelligence

IBM and four leading universities are going to work together to advance the development of artificial intelligence.

The tech giant announced on Wednesday that Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will all work with IBM to further cognitive computing systems – systems like IBM Watson that can learn, reason and help human experts make complex decisions involving extraordinary volumes of fast-moving data.

In a world where vast amounts of information are being stored by companies worldwide -- known as Big Data -- systems that can quickly process and analyze this information could help both businesses and research initiatives in the future to detect patterns, improve efficiency and profit margins, and take on research with less manpower required.

IBM Watson's content analysis and evidence-based learning abilities have been used to study ways to improve customer transactions, banking, as well as fraud and risk management.

Under the terms of the partnership, academics and IBM researchers will lay the foundation for a Cognitive Systems Institute to explore artificial intelligence topics. Each university has a particular research area:

• MIT: How socio-technical tools and applications can boost the collective performance of moderate-sized groups of humans engaged in collaborative tasks such as decision making.
• RPI: How advances in processing power, data availability, and algorithmic techniques can enable the practical application of a variety of artificial intelligence techniques.
• CMU: How systems should be architected to support intelligent, natural interaction with all kinds of information in support of complex human tasks.
• NYU: How deep learning is impacting many areas of science where automated pattern recognition is essential.

"IBM has demonstrated with Watson that cognitive computing is real and delivering value today," said Zachary Lemnios, vice president of strategy for IBM Research.

"It is already starting to transform the ways clients navigate big data and is creating new insights in healthcare, how research can be conducted and how companies can support their customers. But much additional research is needed to identify the systems, architectures and process technologies to support a new computing model that enables systems and people to work together across any domain of expertise."

Via: IBM

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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com