back to article IBM Watson zombie brand shuffles forward with new AI lab in NYC

IBM on Monday unveiled watsonx AI Labs, a New York City hub where startups, researchers, and IBM engineers are expected to co-create agentic AI tools for enterprise use. "Located in the heart of Manhattan at IBM's new offices at One Madison, watsonx AI Labs extends IBM's global network of engineering labs, bringing together …

  1. TheWeetabix Bronze badge

    Only IBM

    Could purchase a company, rename it, and use it as an example of “organic growth” all within the same year….

    How blind are their investors??

    1. GuldenNL

      Re: Only IBM

      You mean the 95 year-old ladies who hold onto the stock because they are "Big Blue chip stocks?"

      No joke, my wife has a handful of these folks as clients. One passed away recently and they are still going through all of the stock certificates and getting information for the approximately $6 million worth of these old blue chip stocks.

  2. Gene Cash Silver badge
    Coat

    Conviction Partners?

    Are these the guys that go to jail with you after your embezzlement sentence?

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: Conviction Partners?

      Well you see they were the "giver" whereas IBM might be described as the "receiver".

      I'm just wondering what part the SOAP protocol played in this transaction.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ok, this is probably just early morning thinking

    But as soon as I read the line

    > software agent that could take the result of that query and turn it into a graph

    I wondered how much SeekAI is feeding end-user inputs back into their AI model so that it learns to generate the most commonly requested graph formats and associated decorative items as its first response to a data graphing request: i.e. when simply asked to "draw a graph to include these figures" it generates an "infographic" to wow the boardroom.

    Then couple the above with the ease of asking for the graphic to be enhanced by adding descriptions to your text prompt, instead of laboriously creating all the imagery and inserting your specific stats to control the shape, size, colour, texture etc of the infographic components. Allowing every office worker to (re)create the infographics to present the data in a way that is meaningful to them.

    Now, if we do get a system learning to first generate graphics based upon the most frequently requested design from all its users, which is now rolled out to all of IBM's customer base, I would give it two months before the default graph is a Cock and Pi Chart Balls. With meaningful size, colour and texture.

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: Ok, this is probably just early morning thinking

      It's absolutely going to happen. My maths skills and prompt engineering fail to adequately describe two upside-down semi-circles with a locus half-way below the centre of each, but that too will pass as surely as my male peers would pass me the calculator with 80085 on it.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    watsonx

    Careful with those capital letters, wouldn't want to catch the eye of a billionaire who might demand to buy it out from under you. It'd be terrible to lose such a well-respected brand from IBM's portfolio.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: watsonx

      Careful with those capital letters, wouldn't want to catch the eye of a billionaire who might demand to buy it out from under you. It'd be terrible to lose such a well-respected brand from IBM's portfolio.

      Could be a cunning plan to extract some of his ill-gotten billions. (t)wats-on-X to elon-X ... only change is the name, the meaning is conserved.

  5. Alan Brown Silver badge

    "Watson"

    Some of us are still aware he was the "leader" in IBM who facilitated the Holocaust, including smuggling machinery to the Nazis during WW2

    Naming an AI after an unabashed nazi supporter was in very poor taste

    https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/hitlers-willing-business-partners/303146/

    (Yes, I get that Watson was Holme's sidekick, but the AI wasn't named after that ficticious character)

    1. Antron Argaiv Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: "Watson"

      Watson was also AG Bell's assistant: "Come here Watson, I want you!"

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    From this comment posted to the 'Fark' website last year:-

    My last stop before I retired was IBM. About ten years ago, when Watson was still going to cure cancer, I told one of our Distinguished Engineers: "You will know Watson is failing if they start slapping the brand name on unrelated stuff like conventional analytics in a desperate bid to goose the revenues."

    And here we are.

  7. Androgynous Cow Herd

    Well it beats unemployment...

    Last I heard about Watson, it was working in a fast food joint, but got fired...

    https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/17/mcdonalds-to-end-ibm-ai-drive-thru-test.html

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