Meg Whitman says IBM's Watson is 'not as far along' as you might think

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ginni rometty ibm watson

Brendan McDermid / Reuters

IBM Chairwoman and CEO Virginia "Ginni" Rometty speaks at an IBM Watson event in lower Manhattan, New York January 9, 2014.

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman, IBM's biggest all-around competitor, isn't impressed with IBM's super smart, talking computer Watson.

When asked by Network World's John Gallant why Whitman wasn't out talking up HPE's own "cognitive" services, she said (emphasis ours):

Listen, they're [IBM] doing some very interesting things. They're buying health care companies and stuff, but listen, our Vertica platform is remarkable as is our Haven OnDemand platform. I put us up against Watson every day of the week here. We're in a lot of customers where actually from a Watson perspective it's not as far along in terms of real-world applications as you might imagine from the advertising."

We'll have to score a point to Whitman on that one. A recent IBM ad shows off the power of Watson using Carrie Fisher conducting a support group for evil, world-conquering robots.

The robots don't want to work with humans while Watson explains that he understands seven languages and likes collaborating with humans.

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The video is funny, went viral on YouTube, and there actually are Watson-powered robots doing real jobs in the world today.

But a support group for displaced 'bots? Probably not a real-world application. 

 

 

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