Will IBM's Watson put your job in jeopardy?

Only if your job is giving answers in the form of a question.<p>Oh shit - that <i>is</i> what I do.

It might. The automobile made it difficult to find work shoeing horses. I do not lament this.

When we think of humans being replaced by automation we often think of robotic devices such as ABB arms, Asimo, and such.<p>But it appears the greater influence may come from "stationary," large-scale, HAL-like systems designed to interact effectively with human beings.<p>Watching Watson run-up the score so quickly was unsettling and I now understand why Kasparov cried. It makes one truly realize that nowadays, if the task can be automated, it probably will be.

ha ha, no. Considering the difficulty of humans equipped with the most advanced pattern matching hardware ever devised by evolution to discern nuances of meaning in spoken language I would say it's a rehash of the AI promises of the 50's that feel short of any practical implementation. We still got a long way to go before a skynet shows up and fires us.

Well, I think it is clear that increased productivity due to improvements in information technology has resulted in slower job growth during this recovery compared with past ones. Corporations have been able to achieve top line growth with minimal hiring.<p>But there are other factors at play. Too much of the US labor force was dedicated to housing, and those people are going to take a long time to either retrain or find new work with their existing skills. They are not being replaced by software (yet).<p>However, I essentially agree with the article. Software and robots will make it easier for corporations to grow profits with out hiring people, and that this increases the threat of income inequality.

I hope it will put the following jobs in jeopardy:<p><pre><code> - secretaries - receptionists - middle managers</code></pre>

lets all go down to ibm and throw our shoes in the machines, only then will our jobs be safe!!!

As a society it should be our goal to have all the repetitive and dumb work been done by machines. If a machine can do your job it wasn't that challenging in the first place. In that case your job provides absolutely zero benefits to the society.

No, not yet. But Ken Jennings is definitely out of a job.

No.