In the three years since the “Jeopardy!” match on TV, Watson is 24 times faster, smarter with a 2,400% improvement in performance, and 90% smaller. IBM says it has shrunk Watson from the size of a master bedroom to the size of three stacked pizza boxes. Since its commercial launch a year ago, the Watson Group has collaborated with partners to build 6,000 apps.
On the education front, the spark for turning Watson into a college course offering came during a Rhodin visit to U-M last year, when a professor suggested the idea.