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Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

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Re: Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

#151
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

had to deal with ibm once. we were developing an application for a customer and ibm was working on some new service for them. of course the customer insisted we use the new ibm service, even though it solved a problem we didn't have at all. the ibm product was a website to be used by end users, while our application had to pass our end users data through. so, i asked the ibm guys (via the customer) to give me the doc…

> yes, their json interface was the DOM, serialized as json. This is pure thedailywtf material.

Did the change request come complete with specific requirements on what the interface should include? Because it sounds like they produced exactly what was asked for: a JSON interface. If the requirements were poorly specified, you can’t lay all the blame on them.

Re: Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

#152
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The irony is that not one of these bills itself as AI. It's just "a product that works" I think you are on to something, put differently: If you need to use the term "AI" to enhance the marketability of the product it is probably because the product sucks.

Companies also do that when trolling for investors.

And employees. Google's embrace of the term "AI" isn't because they need help developing or selling AI-powered products, it's to encourage all the kids to go into computer science and all the existing developers to learn TensorFlow. They can then pick off the best of them as potential employees without having to train them up themselves.

Re: Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two departments couldn't possibly be related. It seems unfair to base judgement on the entire company for that.

So we have some more info out there: - Their PCF solution is deprecated - They were still using a deprecated container management solution instead of kubernetes until recently - If you use Java the for you to use liberty build packs - They push XP and TDD practices from the garage yet many of their consultants don't practice what they preach.

Don't forget their big "blockchain" push (via TV commercials).

Re: Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

#154
post #33

The problem at IBM is not technological; it's managerial . For a long while now, IBM has been treating "AI" as a product that can be managed, packaged, and sold by "general" business managers -- think MBA-types with only a superficial, qualitative grasp of deep learning and AI. Doing that with rapidly evolving technology is a sure-fire recipe for failure . Most such MBA-types today are ill-equipped to manage, package…

It's the entire company, not just these Watson groups. They have a history of buying companies or taking over I/T departments and re-badging employee's only to ax nearly all of them once the knowledge is transferred to some 3rd world country workforce.

Stories like this are not a surprise, it's IBM's way of doing business. Maybe Watson will learn HR and just fire everybody from middle mgmt on up..

Re: Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

#155
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's surely part of the problem, but the catalyst is the marketing strategy that is used to brainwash the employees. In essence; sell the experience, not the product. This works well for IBM generally (the products are shit) but especially well for Watson because it's extremely easy to sell AI without getting bogged down in details. You want to identify brain tumors? We'll just teach Watson to do it. Whilst IBM res…

> Whilst IBM research might be able to pull it off, it'll never get to market because there is nobody capable of making good products at IBM anymore. As an ex-IBMer this is so true and so frustrating at the same time. Engineers are thrashed about on a nearly sprintly basis by PM's with short attention spans and no understanding of how disruptive their continuously changing requirements are. It doesn't help that IBM c…

Sounds like the way non-tech companies operate. Pretty damning that IBM can't understand why leadership of a tech company should have a tech background.

Re: Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

#156
post #136

I've never interacted directly with IBM, but I remember about 2 years ago, they had a talk at the Akamai Edge conference about how they dealt with bloated cookies. The company I work for has the same problem so I sat in to see what their solution was. The problem they were having is that all the various IBM lines of business added so much garbage onto the client's cookie, that eventually their pages would stop loadin…

had to deal with ibm once. we were developing an application for a customer and ibm was working on some new service for them. of course the customer insisted we use the new ibm service, even though it solved a problem we didn't have at all. the ibm product was a website to be used by end users, while our application had to pass our end users data through. so, i asked the ibm guys (via the customer) to give me the doc…

Turns out the interface was built by Watson and technically met the spec.

Re: Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> yes, their json interface was the DOM, serialized as json. This is pure thedailywtf material.

Did the change request come complete with specific requirements on what the interface should include? Because it sounds like they produced exactly what was asked for: a JSON interface. If the requirements were poorly specified, you can’t lay all the blame on them.

The act of them doing that alone shows that they either dont get it or that complexity within the organization has brought productivity to a hault. I'd assume it's the second one.

Re: Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

#158
post #85

This stuff is the friggen worst if you ask me. i'm so done with the AI hype train and IBM is the worst. Linked article mentions a 'watsons law' (similar to moore's law etc). If you ask me, it is more likely for watsons law to be that all commercial BigCo 'AI' offerings will burn thru hundreds of millions and ultimately fail rather then the intended meaning. "Phytel’s contribution was analytics paired with an automate…

> If you ask me, it is more likely for watsons law to be ...burn thru hundreds of millions and ultimately fail rather then the intended meaning. That’s already called Musk’s Law.

Seems like a strange name given none of Musk’s companies have failed?

Re: Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

#159
post #33

The problem at IBM is not technological; it's managerial . For a long while now, IBM has been treating "AI" as a product that can be managed, packaged, and sold by "general" business managers -- think MBA-types with only a superficial, qualitative grasp of deep learning and AI. Doing that with rapidly evolving technology is a sure-fire recipe for failure . Most such MBA-types today are ill-equipped to manage, package…

As of 2018, after seeing how terrible “engineer-types” can be at engineering management, the MBAs are starting to look better to me.

Re: Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI

#160
post #136

I've never interacted directly with IBM, but I remember about 2 years ago, they had a talk at the Akamai Edge conference about how they dealt with bloated cookies. The company I work for has the same problem so I sat in to see what their solution was. The problem they were having is that all the various IBM lines of business added so much garbage onto the client's cookie, that eventually their pages would stop loadin…

had to deal with ibm once. we were developing an application for a customer and ibm was working on some new service for them. of course the customer insisted we use the new ibm service, even though it solved a problem we didn't have at all. the ibm product was a website to be used by end users, while our application had to pass our end users data through. so, i asked the ibm guys (via the customer) to give me the doc…

Ah such classic outsourced third-world contractor output. They are told what to do (by some PM who has no idea) and they do it. If they ever say "uh this doesn't make sense" they are cheaply replaced. I've seen some of this nonsense (though not IBM related):

    strncpy(dst, src, strlen(src));
    dst[strlen(dst)] = '\0';
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