IBM beta tests AI cyber security services from Watson for 40 global clients

Image Credits: REUTERS

By tech2 News Staff /  08 Dec 2016 , 09:32

IBM announced that more than 40 global clients in industries as varied as financial services, healthcare and education have joined the IBM Watson for Cyber Security beta program. The program uses the Watson AI to provide security services to these companies. Clients include Sun Life Financial, SCANA, California Polytechnic State University and Avnet.

The AI will help to identify and prioritise threats, allowing security analysts to make better and faster decisions. Watson uses machine learning and natural language processing to pull out the relevant information from vast amounts of data. A poll conducted by IBM Institute for Business Value among security professionals shows that more than sixty percent believe that emerging cognitive technologies will have an important role to play in combating cyber crime.

Sandy Bird, Chief Technology Officer, IBM Security, says “Customers are in the early stages of implementing cognitive security technologies. Our research suggests this adoption will increase three fold over the next three years, as tools like Watson for Cyber Security mature and become pervasive in security operations centers. Currently, only seven percent of security professionals claim to be using cognitive solutions.”

IBM Watson can determine if a security event or offence matches with the behavior of any known malware or cybercrime campaign. If so, then Watson can pull the relevant background information, and known approaches for tackling the malware or attack. IBM Watson also helps at identifying suspicious behavior, by providing contextual information about the behavior which will allow a security analyst to better decide if the suspect activity is indeed malicious.

IBM security monitors over thirty five billion security events every day, in more than a hundred and thirty countries, and IBM owns over three thousand security related patents.

IBM launches framework to embed Watson in robots, devices and smart things

By tech2 News Staff /  11 Nov 2016 , 13:26

IBM has launched a framework that allows Watson to have a physical shell and use it in various ways. Developers can integrate the AI from IBM into all kinds of things, including spaces, assembly lines, robots, connected cars, wearables, walls, digital avatars, and objects. The framework has support for a wide variety of sensors. Through these bodies, Watson can see, hear and even smell. There is support for infrared and sonar, and Watson can detect vibrations or track changes in temperatures.

These sensors form the “input” through a physical body for the artificial intelligence, which can be configured to churn the information in various ways. The output can be through gestures, actuators, voice, scent emitters, light sequences, navigation or through other purpose built capabilities. This allows Watson to be embodied. The implementation uses a Unity 3D application, and extends the capabilities of the application to the real world.

The whole initiative is called “Project Intu”. A wide range of operating systems are supported including Raspberry Pi, Windows, Mac and Linux. The framework allows for integration of cognitive capabilities such as conversations, translations, image captioning, searches, or speech to text capabilities into meat-space things. For those who want to take a deep dive, Project Intu is available on GitHub, and developers will need to use the Intu Gateway.

How IBM Watson expanded its repertoire to become a virtual job trainer

Learn how Signature HealthCARE partnered with Cognotion to create a tablet-based Certified Nursing Assistant training program using IBM Watson to improve healthcare outcomes.

By Alison DeNisco | October 10, 2016, 12:35 PM PST

As technology continues to disrupt the healthcare industry, IBM Watson is helping provide better training for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) thanks to a new partnership between long term health and rehabilitation companySignature HealthCARE and digital training provider Cognotion.

CNAs represent the largest employment job segment in the nation, with anestimated 5 million of these caregivers needed in the US by 2020. While these healthcare workers are the primary point of care for patients at skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, they are often overworked and underpaid, with poor training programs leading to jobs that make $12 an hour on average. That's according Dr. Mary McNevin, chief learning officer of Signature HealthCARE, during a Monday session at the 2016 Louisville Innovation Summit.

Technology can offer a better way: Signature HealthCARE, with 143 locations across 11 states, partnered with Cognotion to leverage IBM Watson and online learning capabilities to create a more effective and engaging CNA training program.

The new training—called ReadyCNA—involves a 60-hour, tablet-based course that acts as a virtual internship based on patient cases, similar to medical school training, McNevin said.

A benefit of tablet-based learning is the user's ability to self-pace, said Jonathan Dariyanani, president and co-founder of Cognotion. However, this model makes it difficult to ask questions.

Enter IBM Watson, which the team embedded into the course. A student can chose to "Ask Nurse Watson" a question at any time, about any subject, phrasing it however they prefer. Watson will read through every textbook and study ever written about CNAs, and return a quick and understandable answer for the student.

"Watson is so terrific at mastering a corpus of material and being able to

IBM pours $200 million investment into its Watson IoT business

By Teena Maddox  | October 3, 2016, 3:01 PM PST

The IBM investment will be used in part to develop hands-on industry labs at Watson's IoT headquarters in Munich, Germany.

IBM is investing $200 million into its Watson IoT business, which is headquartered in Munich, Germany. The Watson IoT headquarters will be home to new hands-on industry labs where clients and partners will work with IBM's researchers, engineers, and developers to drive innovation in the automotive, electronics, manufacturing, healthcare, and insurance industries.

This is one of IBM's largest ever investments in Europe, and is in response to customers wanting to use a combination of IoT and Artificial Intelligence technologies. IBM currently has 6,000 global clients, up from 4,000 eight months ago, according to an IBM press release. These clients are using Watson IoT technologies to gather information from billions of sensors embedded in machines, cars, drones, ball bearings, and hospitals.

"IBM is making tremendous strides to ensure that businesses around the