IBM has already put its Watson cognitive computing platform to use in healthcare and business (among other areas) following its now-famous run on Jeopardy, and it looks like the company sees city services as another potential market where the artificially intelligent system can find some work. The first city to put it to use is Surrey, British Columbia, which had added some of Watson's capabilities to its MySurrey web, smartphone and Apple Watch apps.
Built by Canadian software developer Purple Forge, the new app lets Surrey residents ask questions about city services in natural language and have Watson deliver a concise answer. And, as city councillor Bruce Hayne said in a statement, "IBM Watson's learning abilities are such that the technology builds its knowledge and improves as citizens use it, much in the same way humans learn."
As Purple Forge chief executive Brian Hurley explained to the Ottawa Citizen, the app could also end up saving cities a considerable amount of money by cutting down on phone calls to city services, which he says can end up costing the city as much as $6 per call. As of yet, though, there's no word on any other cities set to follow Surrey's lead.
[via Fast Company]
