The game is aFoot, Watson: DeepQA systems and the future of HCI

Keates, Simeon; Varker, Philip

Abstract

In February 2011, the IBM Watson DeepQA (deep question and answer) system took part in a special challenge, pitting its question and answer capability against former Jeopardy!TM grand champions in a televised match. Watson emerged victorious from the challenge, demonstrating that current question answering technology has advanced to the point where it can arguably be more dependable than human experts. This new system represents a significant breakthrough in humanity?s decades-long endeavour to build computers that are ?more like us? ? fundamentally designed to map to and support human abilities, and where the needs of people are central to the design process. The emerging Q&A systems, such as IBM?s Watson system, have the potential to address longstanding challenges in the fields of cognitive and decision-making support related to flexibility, precision and accuracy. This paper foresees a future in which ever more powerful question answering systems are used ever more seamlessly to enhance human cognition in all aspects of our lives and work. We look forward to a day when technology truly adapts to people, supporting all of us in reaching our greatest human potential in creativity, productivity and ingenuity.

• Publication Date: 2012
• Deposit Date: Feb 18, 2019
• Publisher: CRC Press
• Pages: 341-348
• Series Title: Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics Series
• Book Title: Advances in Usability Evaluation Part II
• ISBN: 978-1-4665-6054-3
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1201/b12324-40
• Keywords: HCI, Q&A systems, Watson
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1497683