Cognitive computing is a way to extend the boundaries of human cognition, they are certainly not about replacing or necessarily even replicating the way that the human brain works; but more about extending the capabilities of the human brain.
The ability of human to think deeply and solve complex problems is really quite impressive. But human’s ability to read, analyze and process huge volumes of data is really quite poor. The primary part of a cognitive computing system is to combine those two strengths into a collaborative environment.
To make complex decisions, the cognitive system needs to combine different pieces of information together with few analytics to make connections and extract key elements, as a human approach a problem. It is the first key element of a cognitive computing system, expanding the boundaries of human cognition.
In cognitive computing, there should be much more natural interaction and engagement between the human and the computer, like speech recognition. In addition, the application of machine learning is really essential to these cognitive computing systems. But it goes beyond this core foundational machine learning to a system’s ability to adapt over time with use. It handles a feedback mechanism to capture the results of the interaction and the system must be implemented to learn from that interaction and evolve automatically over time and improve its performance.
In short, cognitive computing which uses natural language processing and machine learning to enable people and machines to interact more naturally to extend and magnify human expertise and cognition. Far from replacing our thinking, cognitive systems will extend our cognition and free us to think more creatively.
