IBM Opens Watson HQ In York Ahead Of Global Expansion

IBM has announced a major expansion in its Watson artificial intelligence supercomputer programme just ten months after it launched a dedicated business unit.

The computing giant has today opened a new headquarters in New York dedicated to Watson which will be home to 600 employees working on the technology, and will also be setting up bases in Dublin, Melbourne, Singapore, London and Sao Paolo.

The New York office will include a “Watson Client Experience Centre” to show off uses of artificial intelligence technology, and will also offer access to students at New York University and City University of New York as part of a partnership aimed at furthering so called “cognitive computing” through education and app development.

Further expansion

IBM also today announced a host of new clients who will look to use Watson to develop new and exciting apps and services. Spanning across 25 countries, they include the likes of ANZ Global Wealth in Australia, Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand, Spain’s CaixaBank, Deakin University in Australia and South Africa’s Metropolitan Health.

The new clients will be fully equipped with Watson Analytics, launched last month by IBM to take advantage of the technology’s potential in the data analytics field. The company has already roped in customers including Johnson & Johnson and the New York Genome Centre, which have used the tool to discover hidden connections in huge datasets.

“Watson is bringing forward a new era of computing, enabling organizations around the globe to launch new businesses, redefine markets and transform industries,” Mike Rhodin, senior vice president of the IBM Watson Group, said in a blog post announcing the news.

“Watson is fuelling a new market and ecosystem of clients, partners, developers, venture capitalists, universities and students,” Rhodin added. “The next great innovations will come from people who are able to make connections that others don’t see and Watson is making possible.”

Since it first hit the headlines by triumphing on television quiz show Jeopardy in 2011, IBM has been quietly developing Watson as it looks to get more involved in the field of artificial intelligence. In January, the company launched the Watson Group, a dedicated business unit for the technology, with $1bn in investment to explore uses for it.

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