Watson

Watson is a cognitive computing system developed by IBM that uses natural language processing, machine learning, and information retrieval to answer questions posed in everyday language. It became widely known after competing on the quiz show Jeopardy! in 2011, where it defeated two former Jeopardy! champions. The system ran on a distributed hardware and software stack and used a probabilistic scoring model to select likely answers.

Watson's underlying architecture, often referred to as DeepQA, combines large-scale data processing with advanced analytics to interpret questions, retrieve relevant evidence, and rank possible responses by confidence. It can work with structured data, such as databases, and unstructured data, such as documents and web pages.

In industry, IBM positioned Watson as a platform for AI-powered applications across sectors including business analytics, healthcare, finance, and customer service. Notable deployments included Watson for Oncology and various enterprise AI services (such as conversational agents and content analysis). While it demonstrated value in certain pilots, broader clinical use faced challenges related to data quality, workflow fit, and measurable outcomes, leading to a tempered adoption in some markets.

The name Watson is also associated with Dr. John H. Watson, the fictional companion to Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, as well as with other IBM and technology products bearing the Watson branding.