Bob Dylan is a true rock legend, with such mega-hits as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Watson is, well, an IBM supercomputer, which won a special Jeopardy Tournament of Champions against humans. According to IBM, “Watson is built to mirror the same learning process that we have—through the power of cognition. What drives this process is a common cognitive framework that humans use to inform their decisions: Observe, Interpret, Evaluate, and Decide.”
To position Watson as more likable, IBM has produced and advertised a number of short videos with celebrities — such as the one below with Bob Dylan.
What’s wrong with the ad? (1) It requires the viewer to pay very close attention to figure out the message. Most viewers won’t do that. (2) Most CIOs are too young to remember Dylan and don’t watch Jeopardy (they’re still at work when it airs). Thus there’s no connection to the ad.
This ad is interesting, but I do not see much value in the ad. There is no connection between Bob Dylan and Watson that the viewer can easily identify. I do think that it is amazing how Watson is able to interact with humans in such natural ways. With the amount of information that Watson is able to instantaneously research and derive an answer from, I feel like Watson should be used more often in many businesses. It would be great to have Watson solve intricate problems or determine unimaginable solutions within seconds. At the same time, it is scary to think that humans could one day be outsmarted by computers like Watson, and they could eventually make all the decisions for us.