IBM

Understanding the four types of AI, from reactive robots to self-aware beings

Neville Hobson 11 Comments Artificial Intelligence, Business, Communication, IBM, Innovation, Science, Society, Software, Technology, Workplace
cyborg

The common, and recurring, view of the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence research is that sentient and intelligent machines are just on the horizon. Machines understand verbal commands, distinguish pictures, drive cars and play games better than we do. How much longer can it be before they walk among us? By Arend Hintze, Michigan State University The new White House report on artificial intelligence takes an appropriately skeptical view of that dream. It says the next 20 years likely won’t see machines “exhibit broadly-applicable intelligence comparable to or exceeding that of humans,” though it does go on to say that in the coming years, “machines will reach and exceed human performance on more and more tasks.” But its assumptions about how […]

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Meet the omni-channel experience that is Wimbledon 2016

Neville Hobson 23 Comments Business, Communication, Events, Experiences, IBM, Innovation, Marketing, Mobile, Public Relations, Social Media, Software, Sport, Technology, Web

The Championships, Wimbledon 2016 started yesterday, June 27, and run until July 10. During these two weeks of intense competition, Wimbledon and the competing players will be names and brands in an event that will not only be on television screens large and small across the globe in real time and recorded, but also available and accessible on myriad devices, from smartwatches to big-screen PCs, almost anything that can connect to the global internet any time anywhere. To be sure, there’s a terrific amount of great tennis to interest and captivate tennis fans as the process of elimination in these championships reaches its culmination in the finals on the Centre and No 1 Courts on Sunday July 10. The courts will […]

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The rise of the cognitive PR machines

Neville Hobson 43 Comments Business, Communication, IBM, Innovation, Online Media, Public Relations, Social Business, Social Media, Society, Software, Technology, Trends, Web

Within two years, 20 percent of business content will be authored by machines or “robo writers,” as Gartner puts it in its list of ten predictions of an algorithmic and smart machine-driven world that the analyst firm published last October. It was a topic I used as a focal point in my presentation about PR measurement and how it’s getting smarter partly through automation that captured close attention from the 50+ PR pros in the audience at a CIPR event in London last week. Content that is based on data and analytical information will be turned into natural language writing by technologies that can proactively assemble and deliver information through automated composition engines. Content currently written by people – such […]

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The journey of Convergence

Neville Hobson 18 Comments Business, Communication, Experiences, IBM, Social Business, Trends, Workplace

Recently, I wrote about email as one of the elements in transforming an organization into a social, collaborative enterprise. A classic example is the role Atos’ zero-email program plays in such an exercise. While I cited Atos in my post as part of the concluding point I wanted to make that email is (or can be) an enabler for social business – and which must have the “it depends…” filter added – the conclusion isn’t the key point here. What I think is more significant, and which requires far greater attention, is the journey itself where many elements are in play that require help to ensure the important ones arrive at the right destination. My favourite metaphor here is a […]

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Changing gears with IBM

Neville Hobson 56 Comments Business, Communication, Experiences, IBM, Personal Development, Professional Development, Social Business, Technology, Web, Workplace
gears

  I’ve been thinking a lot about social business lately. About what it is – broadly, focused on people (behaviours, mindsets) and organizations (culture, vision, leadership) – and about what it isn’t (an extension of, or level up from, social media). For the past dozen years, I’ve been directly and actively involved in one way or another in social media and social business, as a consultant, as a client, as an experimenter, as an early adopter (and leaver), as an influencer, and as an implementer. All of this has been leading me to a place where thinking, evangelisms, experiences, tools and activities can come together into a coherent singularity (for want of a better word) that makes sense, is credible […]

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