Cognition as a Service: An Industry Perspective

Abstract

Articles WINTER 2015 71F rom an industry perspective, the era of cognitive computing has dawned with the promise of human-centered cognitive prostheses, as just one of many benefits anticipated (Kelly and Hamm 2013). Gartner, the technology industry analyst firm, projects that by 2017, 10 percent of all computers will be learning (Plummer 2013). However, scholars familiar with the field of artificial intelligence and cognitive science are rightfully cautious, after witnessing a roller coaster of ups and downs over AI's relatively short 60-year history. Simply put, hard problems still remain.So how can we know if this time is really different? After all, three of the key pillars of cognitive computing, namely machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and hypotheses generation with evidence-based explanation (EBE) capabilities, have existed for quite some time. The first author personally recalls programming hidden Markov model (HHM) learning algorithms for speech recognition in a

Rebuilding Evolution: A Service Science Perspective

“…In this way, all entities (people, organizations and society) use cognitive mediators to enhance value co-creation interactions. Almost all the people including doctors, physicians, patients, bankers, policymakers, tourists, customers, as well as community people greatly augmented their capabilities by the cognitive mediators or cognition as a service [15].…”

“…Cognition-as-aService (CaaS), provided for instance in the cloud and on mobile devices, aims to augment and scale the performance of people through the use of cognitive assistants. CaaS creates opportunities for service providers to augment the capabilities of employees, customers, and other ecosystem partners; for example, applications of IBM's Watson Services on Bluemix (one implementation of CaaS) can be used in the context of healthcare to assist doctors, nurses, and other caregivers, patients and their families, as well as insurance providers, local pharmacies, and other ecosystem partners [15].…”

“…Spohrer, Bassano, Piciocchi and Siddike [48] proposed wise service system based on intelligence and multi-generational human values in the context of rigorous and formal examples of engineering changes to sociotechnical systems. Intelligence involves language, learning, and levels of confidence in cognitive systems [15]. On the other hand, wisdom connects with human values and stands the test of time and perspectives of multiple generations; wisdom connects to courage and not cowardice; wisdom does not control the narrative cosmetically or politically, but does suggest a higher purpose for our actions than individual selfishness or complete altruism [48].…”

People’s Interactions with Cognitive Assistants for Enhanced Performances

“…Apple's Siri, Google's Now, Amazon's Echo, IBM's Watson (Figure 1) and many other smart machines, cognitive tools, are beginning to reach a level of utility that provide a foundation for a new generation of assistants, cognitive assistants (CAs) [24]. CAs are new decision support tools that are able to augment human capabilities and expertise [21] [28] [30].…”

“…high-quality recommendations and help them make better data driven decisions [4]. People problem solving capabilities significantly augmented by the interaction of people and CAs [24] [26]. Cognitive computing and sensor technologies have begun to emerge to augment and scale the capabilities of people in specific ways [11] [16].…”