(source below) **Don't expect IBM's Watson to cure cancer anytime soon
**
In 2011, International Business Machines Corp.'s Watson computing system wowed the world when it beat two champion contestants on "Jeopardy."
Two years after conquering television game shows, IBM (NYSE: IBM) ballyhooed Watson as a medical messiah, announcing that Watson had a "mission to eradicate cancer."
Today, the success of Watson and its mission to exterminate cancer hasn't happened.
Late last month, health and medical website Stat.com reported that "IBM’s Watson supercomputer recommended ‘unsafe and incorrect’ cancer treatments, internal documents show."
The site reported that Watson was criticized by doctors for not being able to provide usable recommendation for cancer patients, and one doctor was quoted that Watson was useless for cancer treatment.
The Wall Street Journal chimed in today, reporting that even after IBM has spent billions of dollars on Watson, "the outlook looks gloomy."
Even though IBM once touted Watson's potential for aiding cancer doctors, "no published research shows Watson improving patient outcomes," the Journal reported.
For example, a Texas cancer hospital — The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center — and IBM touted Watson and its "mission aimed at ending cancer, starting with leukemia, in 2013.
But after the hospital spent $62 million on the Watson project with not many results to show, the project was placed on hold and "the end of the MD Anderson collaboration looks bad," Forbes reported last year.
The Journal reported that Watson is helping doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as Watson for Genomics has found "relevant: medical articles. But although Watson shows promise, one VA doctor said "that promise is not realized.”
Watson and artificial intelligence may have a role in the future war against cancer, doctors across the country have said, but so far, Watson hasn't won many battles.
IBM's Watson Health unit recently announced layoffs at its Research Triangle Park location in North Carolina.
Source:
https://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2018/08/13/dont-expect-ibms-watson-to-cure-cancer-anytime.html