The Cognitive Systems Institute, which is a new set of IBM university programs in conjunction with IBM Research and the Watson Business Unit,  will focus faculty collaborators on building and evaluating cognitive assistants for every profession.   Artificial cognitive systems, or cognitive systems for short,  exhibit capabilities and/or perform tasks deemed intelligent by natural cognitive …

Continue reading ‘Cognitive Systems Institute’ »

It is time to re-read  Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think” and Douglas Engelbart’s “Augmenting Human Intellect.” Bush (1945) wrote: There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other …

Continue reading ‘Time to re-read “As We May Think” and “Augmenting Human Intellect”’ »

Jean Paul Jacob (IBM Research Emeritus) alerted me to this NYT article “Automation Alone Isn’t Killing Jobs” … The author of the NYT article, Tyler Cowen, notes: “Many other examples of automatable jobs are discussed in “The Second Machine Age,” a book by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, and in my own book, “Average Is …

Continue reading ‘Most careers in the era of cognitive systems have not been invented yet’ »

How can a food truck become an example of a smart service system, known for creative new recipes? Before explaining, consider recipes just a bit… Recipes are new combinations and configurations of existing ingredients.  Some recipes are appealing, and stick around. In his book “The Coming Prosperity: How Entrepreneurs Are Transforming The Global Economy” Phil …

Continue reading ‘Recipes and Smart Service Systems with Cogs’ »

“Cogs” can be thought of as a new species of intelligent agents (“smart machines“) that can learn and communicate with us, and know a person and a person’s history very well.  For example, already doctors are starting to recommend healthcare apps to patience, and perhaps soon they will prescribe apps, and insurers will pay.  However, …

Continue reading ‘Cogs, Cognitive Systems, and Service Systems’ »

The Cognitive Systems Institute is being established to explore answers to two questions with both technology and pubic policy dimensions: How can cognitive systems be used to improve the productivity and creativity of: (1) individual researchers and their teams? (2) research universities and their regions? More specifically, the Cognitive Systems Institute works with cognitive systems …

Continue reading ‘Cognitive Systems Institute’ »

POV – Cognitive Systems: Science, Management, Engineering, Design & Arts, Public Policy The fields of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science are arguably two of the newer academic disciplines, barely older than Computer Science which is still a few decades short of its centennial. As academics and practitioners of these young fields convene several themes will …

Continue reading ‘Cognitive Systems: Science, Management, Engineering, Design & Arts, Public Policy’ »