2019 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

All Content > Enterprise News Story > New England

Awarded to

Lucas Mearian, Senior Reporter

Entry details

Did IBM overhype Watson Health's AI promise?

Issue date (if applicable): 
Publication name: Computerworld
Publishing company: IDG
Website home page: computerworld.com

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

Computerworld, which has covered enterprise technology since its founding in 1967, strives to be the go-to online publication for IT decision-makers and IT professionals looking to understand and implement technology in the workplace. With a focus on topics that span the needs of companies large and small, our goal is to provide authoritative analysis of IT trends, useful insights into how technology is used (and what it can do) in the enterprise, and to serve as a resource for users trying to understand how IT is evolving. In particular, we focus on a handful of critically important areas for business: Windows, Office and productivity suites, Apple in the enterprise, mobile issues, collaboration software and blockchain. Our coverage includes deeply researched features, timely news analyses, lively and informative blogs, sharp opinion pieces and a variety of videos and podcasts – all aimed at solving tech problems for IT users. Our goal is to reach users at all levels, from those at the top of the IT food chain who make the big decisions, to business professionals who use technology in their daily work, to the IT admins and support staff who have to keep everything running smoothly.

Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

For years, IBM has been touting its "Watson" AI technology as a powerful problem-solving tool for business and healthcare – especially healthcare. Watson may be most famously known as a contestant on Jeopardy in 2011, but that was largely a publicity move; in the healthcare industry, IBM talked up Watson for its ability to improve medical outcomes. But after reports emerged that the technology wasn't working as intended – and was offering up erroneous medical advice (a charge IBM denied) – Computerworld Senior Reporter Lucas Mearian began investigating. He reached out to officials at several healthcare facilities that IBM itself pointed to as success stories, including the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Mayo Clinic and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. From M.D. Anderson, Mearian was able to detail problems with the Watson system; from the others he was met with silence (Mayo Clinic) or a denial that the technology was ever rolled out (Memorial Sloan Kettering). What emerges based on his reporting, as well as comments from industry analysts, is that while Watson offers great promise years down the road, IBM largely hyped what the technology can do now.

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3321138/healthcare-it/did-ibm-put-too-much-stock-in-watson-health-too-soon.html

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