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IBM Watson API

developer.ibm.com

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Re: IBM Watson API

#51

Post by pesenti »

somberi wrote: post #32
pesenti wrote: post #15

IBM is about to make these APIs (and many others) much more accessible as part of BlueMix ( https://ace.ng.bluemix.net/ - the IBM PaaS/Heroku). I lead the team in charge of developing the Watson platform. Ask me questions!

Hey there. The startup I co-founded has been accepted by IBM partner for Watson. A few weeks into it, we are still doing the "form-filling" marathon and have not had access to an instance. Seems like the API, when available to public will be a faster way to access it. Punekale at google's mail.

Not completely. The first set of APIs won't let you provide your own content - it will let you play with the Q&A API (and also do a lot of other fun things not directly related Q&A). The instance you will get access to through the application will let you provide your own content. We are working hard to make that available as self-service but that's going to take a little more time.

Re: IBM Watson API

#52

Post by mmastrac »

cobalt wrote: post #40
Ixiaus wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BlueMix is actually pretty exciting to me; I think IBM has finally stepped up as a competitor in the "cloud" ecosystem where Microsoft has really failed.

uhh, failed according to what?

I personally have seen very few success stories that involved Azure. The messaging coming through to the public is that Azure is buggy and unreliable. I can recall seeing a couple of major downtime incidents ([1] at least) in the last six months, and a significant number of major ones over the last few years (certificate renewal issues, leap day issues, etc [2][3][4]).

I wouldn't choose Azure myself, and I would actively recommend against choosing it to others from what I have seen (unless you are building a solution on .NET/Windows, perhaps). I can't imagine that I'm alone.

[1] http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-azure-virtual-machine-cloud-...

[2] http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2013/02/24/windows-azure-ser...

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5266947

[4] http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/leap-day-glitch-caus...

Re: IBM Watson API

#53

Post by thinkpad20 »

Ixiaus wrote: post #39
pesenti wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watson APIs will be accessible - without the need for an application - as part of BlueMix ( https://ace.ng.bluemix.net/ - the IBM PaaS/Heroku) in a couple of weeks. Stay posted!

BlueMix is actually pretty exciting to me; I think IBM has finally stepped up as a competitor in the "cloud" ecosystem where Microsoft has really failed.

"Really failed"? According to Forbes in July of this year[0], Microsoft is second only to Amazon in the cloud market, and gaining. I'm not sure how that counts as a failure, except in the sense that Microsoft makes a popular whipping boy.

[0] http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2014/07/28/amazon-i...

Re: IBM Watson API

#54

Post by mark_l_watson »

pesenti wrote: post #28
mooreds wrote: post #13

If you want access to the API, you have to fill out a form, here: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/form_ecosys... This is buried in the docs as a comment on this page: https://developer.ibm.com/watson/docs/developing-watson-apis... Edit: No real support for 'playing around' with the API. Bummer. Edit2: Just went through the application process linked above. Be prepared to give info about yourself and…

Watson APIs will be accessible - without the need for an application - as part of BlueMix ( https://ace.ng.bluemix.net/ - the IBM PaaS/Heroku) in a couple of weeks. Stay posted!

That is great! I just signed up with my existing IBM ID. I am enjoying using IBM Watson right now on a customer project, and being able to experiment and learn on my own will both help the effort to help my customer and perhaps use IBM Watson for personal projects. BTW, I like your dev page, with starter kits for multiple languages and frameworks.

Re: IBM Watson API

#55

Post by yatoomy »

Ive been looking into Watson's new application to analytics etc. How would that compare to say Mathimatica or the Wolfram Language/Data Science Platform?

Re: IBM Watson API

#56

Post by aswath87 »

pesenti wrote: post #15

IBM is about to make these APIs (and many others) much more accessible as part of BlueMix ( https://ace.ng.bluemix.net/ - the IBM PaaS/Heroku). I lead the team in charge of developing the Watson platform. Ask me questions!

When will BlueMix have Watson access?

Re: IBM Watson API

#57

Post by atratus »

pesenti wrote: post #15

IBM is about to make these APIs (and many others) much more accessible as part of BlueMix ( https://ace.ng.bluemix.net/ - the IBM PaaS/Heroku). I lead the team in charge of developing the Watson platform. Ask me questions!

The Q&A is not particularly interesting...are there other api's we can experiment with? Also, is there any precedent for getting clojure up on bluemix?

Re: IBM Watson API

#58

Post by Rooster61 »

aabajian wrote: post #14
malanj wrote: post #4

Has anyone at HN used either IBM Watson or Wolfram Alpha to build a real (commercial) app? It feels like there should be a whole wave of apps built on either of these technologies but it doesn't seem to be materialising. What is holding back the killer apps for answer/computation engines?

Google / Wolfram Alpha / Watson are great at answering broad questions. 1. "Who was the 12th president?" - Zachary Taylor 2. "What color wine is cabernet sauvignon?" - Red 3. "Is a ferret a rodent?" - The ferret is the domesticated member of the Order Carnivora, Family Mustelidae and Genus Mustela. A common misconception is that ferrets are rodents. The real challenge is answering niche questions: 1. What size are th…

You bring up a good point, but it seems as if Watson was designed with this in mind. If you notice in the JSON response, it lists this query as a factoid class.

It may handle different queries with different attributes differently, such as focusing on certain portions of its corpus or changing what aspects of its search results are more heavily weighed.

A query identified as a factoid might be researched and judged very differently than something a bit more nebulous, such as a comparison, or something with more specificity like the examples you listed.

Admittedly, I am basing quite a bit off of one example response given in their documentation, but it is an intriguing clue as to how Watson will handle that aspect of understanding which info to discern.

Re: IBM Watson API

#59

Post by dalek2point3 »

pesenti wrote: post #15

IBM is about to make these APIs (and many others) much more accessible as part of BlueMix ( https://ace.ng.bluemix.net/ - the IBM PaaS/Heroku). I lead the team in charge of developing the Watson platform. Ask me questions!

I'm curious about the "copyright" field. Do you return the original sources from where Watson learnt the information he is presenting? What are the major sources? Have you faced copyright or legal restrictions to access information and has this affected Watson's ability to answer questions in a certain area?

Re: IBM Watson API

#60

Post by pesenti »

atratus wrote: post #57
pesenti wrote: post #15

IBM is about to make these APIs (and many others) much more accessible as part of BlueMix ( https://ace.ng.bluemix.net/ - the IBM PaaS/Heroku). I lead the team in charge of developing the Watson platform. Ask me questions!

The Q&A is not particularly interesting...are there other api's we can experiment with? Also, is there any precedent for getting clojure up on bluemix?

Yes many others - think NLP, multi-lingual, social media, speech, vision, etc. We'll start with a small set and keep expanding.

I don't know about Clojure, I would ask that question on their forum: https://developer.ibm.com/answers?community=bluemix

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