IBM buys artificial intelligence start-up company Cognea to inject personality into Watson

According to foreign http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/31646.html "> media reports, IBM announced today that it has acquired artificial intelligence start-up company Cognea. Cognea developed an artificial intelligence platform based on cognitive computing and dialogue, which is dedicated to providing virtual assistants that can personalize conversations for corporate customers such as bank call centers.

IBM spoke at Post about how the Watson platform would adapt to the "computational cognitive age". In the age of computational cognition, people can talk to machines that can understand natural language.

The acquisition comes as IBM seeks to commercialize Watson through its newly formed Watson department. The department was set up earlier this year and IBM injected 1 billion dollars into it.

Michael Rhodin, senior vice president of IBM's Watson department, points out that IBM's introduction of Cognea will give Watson a series of personalities, "from a Michael Rodin formal accent to a friendly passion for the child next door."

Cognea's two co-founder Lisle Car Cooper (Liesl capper) and John Zacos (John Zakos) and other team members will join IBM. Kapolei had previously created a search engine company called Mooter, and Zacos had briefly served in the IBM Research Department. The two were co-founded in 2005 Cognea.

Cognea's two main products are high IQ virtual assistants Mycybertwin and Cognea virtual assistants, both "able to handle complex tasks, maintain a pleasant mood, speak multiple languages, and stand by for 24 hours." "Cognea's clients include NASA and the National Bank of Australia. The company also claims that companies have used its technology to create 40,000 of chat bots.

The acquisition will further advance IBM's plan to make Watson a development platform for companies, start-ups and universities. "Using Cognea services, designers of cognitive applications will have a variety of functional choices that make the experience of interacting with computers more natural and valuable." "Rodin said.

Companies from all walks of life are experimenting with the Watson system, including Italy's oil giant Eni, the Singapore Development Bank and two U.S. health care organizations.

(Responsible editor: Meng)