IBM, AI and MegaMinds

The June 20 NY Times had an interesting story about IBM's new supercomputer, Watson, a venture in artificial intelligence (AI) that wins in the popular TV game show Jeopardy. The project is headed by David Ferrucci and works by matching key words and cross-checking over time and space. While not in all respects as intelligent as a deeply educated and experienced human, progress is being made towards the Singularity. For more on this see chapters 5 and 6 of my new book MegaMinds: How to Create and Invent in the Age of Google.