IBM's Is Using Watson To Psychoanalyze People From Their Tweets
Ben Hlder / Getty Images
Watson is a computer that understands human language. Simply by looking at the language used when posting on social media sites, it can understand your personality and even predict major events likely to happen in your life.
Amazingly, this tech doesn't even have to know a company's customer's social media accounts beforehand. It can figure them out on its own by sifting through what people post online with information in a company database.
The first use that comes to mind for this is marketing. The Watson tech tries to figure out what's happening in a person's life from social media to predict when to send you offers. As Fast Co. Design's John Brownlee writes:
"It can even predict major life-events: if you changed your Facebook status to "Married" a year ago, for example, a company might infer that it was about time to start approaching you about products and services for your first child."
If customers don't want to be profiled, they need to make sure their social media is made private, though IBM is also looking into developing some kind of a more global opt-out feature, Brownlee reports.
Instead of selling consumers stuff, it's possible this tech could also be used to provide better customer service. So if you tweet negatively about a company, they know who you are, your personality traits, your time zone, when and how they should contact you.
Here's what your personality profile looks like to Watson:
IBM Research staff member Eben Haber's explains how it works in this video:
- Saudi Arabia wants China to help fund its struggling $500 billion Neom megaproject. Investors may not be too excited.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- One of the world's only 5-star airlines seems to be considering asking business-class passengers to bring their own cutlery
- Indian IT sector staring at 2nd straight year of muted revenue growth: Crisil
- Shubman Gill to play 100th IPL game as Gujarat locks horns with Delhi today
- Realme Narzo 70, Narzo 70X 5G smartphones launched in India starting at ₹11,999
- Indian housing sentiment index soars, Ahmedabad emerges as frontrunner
- 10 Best tourist places to visit in Ladakh in 2024