Welcome to the Era of Cognitive Computing

At some point a child might touch a hot plate and his mother will say the word “hot.”  That word is then programmed in the child’s brain. When someone says, “hot,” the child knows to be careful. Eventually, when the child has accumulated enough knowledge he will start to ask the question “why?”

Can computers learn the same way a children learns? 

We are getting to that point, explains Hector Ruiz, the former chariman and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices and the author of Slingshot: AMD’s Fight to Free an Industry from the Ruthless Grip of Intel. Ruiz tells Big Think that we are starting to see evidence today that computers can “get to a point where actually they begin to query back and say ‘I need more information. Give me more information. Tell me about this.'” 

In the video below, Ruiz points to experiments going on right now in health care, oil exploration and financial transactions that are beginning “to tap the power of cognitive computing.” 

Watch here:

Image courtesy of Shutterstock