Cognitive Cloud Computing

With the advancement in the technologies and ease of access to almost any form of digital entertainment, we are creating more than a zettabyte of data each year (equivalent to 250 billion DVDs!) with the production only increasing exponentially. Most of the data that we produce is unstructured and unrefined and cannot be used for any real time application to aid the prominent industries or even individuals who are looking for personalized information 24 hours a day. We have AIs running algorithms on the data produced to find out patterns or similarities in them to be able to use them and harness their potential but with the general frightful concerns related to them, a more realistic way is needed for this.

Enter cognitive computing. Cognition is “the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses”. Cognitive computing process uses a blend of artificial intelligence, neural networks, machine learning, natural language processing, sentiment analysis and contextual awareness to solve day-to-day problems just like humans. In simple terms, it’s a combination of best of humans and best of computers. They learn from the data and in effect continuously ‘re-program’ themselves. The tech giant IBM defines Haider Sultan| ECE | B.Tech. 3 cognitive computing as an advanced system that learns at scale. It reasons with purpose and interacts with humans in a natural form. Now that sounds familiar - remember Friday from Ironman or TARS from Interstellar!

The literature we all converse in is full of flaws but humans are able to resolve the ambiguities with context, unlike a system which should be able to process them. Cognitive systems are capable of understanding the subtleties, idioms and the nuances of the human language. Using deep natural language processing it’s able to examine co-occurrence and co-relations with context. They are used in decision making and root cause analysis and have the ability to transform insight to foresight.

Artificial intelligence is programmed to find out the most optimum solution to a given problem and uses pre-defined algorithms to avoid particular scenarios, meaning most of the time it cannot be rational. Cognitive computing will use human thinking to solve the problems giving us the power of fast and more accurate data analysis without having to worry about the wrong decisions taken by the machine learning systems. IBM’s Watson is used in multiple industries for assisting and managing with huge volumes of data. In healthcare it helps with patient’s data along with assisting the doctors with latest evidence-based medicines and with surgery or operations. Edge Up Sports assists to reduce sports injuries on the field by collecting and evaluating data of player movement through sensor-tracking cameras, and in turn giving insights to minimize injuries. It’s also used by some to manage their Fantasy Football teams and make more informed decisions.

Integrating cognitive computing with cloud is an intelligent decision. Cloud allows developers to build Cognitive models, test solutions, and integrates with existing systems without needing physical infrastructure. It optimizes resource utilization as the cognitive cloud can be used as and when required and decommissioned when idle.

With more and more data being processed every minute we need the cognitive system to help categorize and organize it. The implementations of the technology are numerous but along with that come hurdles such as the security issues as well as the society’s willingness to adopt it. The tech still has a long way to go but at least now we can be reassured that we won’t be having an AI apocalypse.