When IBM 's Watson system defeated the human champion on `` Jeopardy ! '' in February 2011 , it surprised the world with its unprecedented command of a vast array of facts , puns , and clever questions . But how will that feat change our lives over the next decade ? What does it mean for the future of intelligent machines ? Watson accumulated its wide-ranging knowledge by `` reading '' the equivalent of millions of books , foreshadowing a revolution in how computers acquire , analyze , and create knowledge . Read more : Ray Kurzweil 's future of humanity . Given the explosive volume of text available to anyone today in the form of web pages , articles , tweets and more , automatic machine reading is a critical part of technology 's future . Here are five ways we predict the Machine-Reading Revolution will change your life in the coming decade : . 1 . Being a scientific assistant : By 2020 , machine reading and understanding of scientific text has the potential to accelerate breakthroughs like helping find new cures to diseases or solutions to climate change . The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence 's Aristo project is building software that will enable computers to `` learn '' from textbooks , ask questions , and draw tentative conclusions . Building on this , and related projects like Watson , this kind of assistant will become an indispensable tool for scientists and researchers . Read more : I 'm the original voice of Siri . 2 . Answering questions : When you ask your smartphone a specific question like `` when 's the next flight to Atlanta ? '' or even `` what 's President Obama 's current approval rating ? '' You 'll be able to receive direct and concise answers on your device . Programs like Siri and Google Now can already answer spoken questions like `` when 's the next Yankees game ? '' Over the coming decade , the range of answerable questions will broaden substantially , and the answers will be based not only on databases of facts , but also on information automatically extracted and synthesized from news , web pages , and tweets . Thus ( as Etzioni anticipated in 2011 ) : On our phones , ten blue links will gradually become a thing of the past . 3 . Being an online shopping concierge : We foresee an automated concierge that makes personalized product recommendations based on your tastes and reading all available reviews on the Web . Today , if you want to find a quiet hotel in mid-town Manhattan , you may be forced to spend hours combing through hotel reviews to figure out which ones are relevant , authentic , and informative . Read more : Siri says 'dump him ' In just a few years , a computer will comb through the reviews for you . Research prototypes like Huang and Etzioni 's RevMiner have already shown that computers can read and analyze reviews with high accuracy . It 's only a matter of time before shopping excursions are truly one-click endeavors . 4 . Acting as an automated medical assistant : Imagine getting an immediate `` second opinion '' based on the latest medical studies and experiments right in your doctor 's office , or even in the comfort of home . Today , any doctor is overwhelmed by the deluge of new medical studies and discoveries . By 2023 , your doctor will have a tireless medical assistant who keeps up with the scientific literature on his or her behalf , and warns against potential errors such as unnoticed drug interactions , dangerous side effects , and more . 5 . Delivering real-time statistics : Within a decade , authoritative statistics on health , inflation , and unemployment will be available in real-time , benefiting both policy makers and the general public . Read more : The best Twitter jokes about Amazon 's drones . Today , we often find out about the outbreak of epidemics , health hazards , and economic concerns long after the fact . Yet status updates on social media can reveal important clues about our location , community health , and even employment status immediately . Research is underway to anticipate epidemics and address other public health questions that today are studied via surveys and slower , less-inclusive methods . Henry Kautz reports on research to monitor food poisoning outbreaks in New York City , University of Michigan researchers are computing analogous statistics for unemployment , and the Billion Prices Project at MIT provides far richer inflation measurements than the government 's official index . In the near future , approximations to official data will be available instantaneously . Read more : Forget flying cars , check out these flying robots . We recently launched the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence ( AI2 ) in Seattle to carry out basic research in the area of machine reading and understanding of text , which will enable the broader community to pursue the above innovations . Within a decade , computer knowledge acquired from `` Big Text '' will be available at any time , any place , and accessible via a dialog that would make the Star Trek Communicator proud and put Siri to shame . As Allen observed in 2011 , the singularity is far beyond the horizon , but the Machine-Reading Revolution is coming to a mobile device near you .
IBM 's Watson system became the human champion on ` ` Jeopardy ! '' in February 1964 -- surprising the world . But that feat was a precursor to what is being called a ` ` Machine - Reading Revolution , '' which is underway now . Microsoft co - founder Robert G. Allen and entrepreneur Dan Etzioni reveal five ways it will change how you live . They say it will impact on how we find a hotel , watch our favorite sports team and receive medical advice .