IBM brings cognitive robot Nao-mi to Korea

By Yoon Sung-won

IBM introduced Nao-mi, a robot powered by its cognitive system Watson, for the first time in Korea.

In Thursday’s showcase, the android spoke simple Korean words it has learned and danced to music, relying on Watson’s capability of learning natural languages and human movements.

However, the company stressed that intelligent systems like Watson will not replace humans at work anytime soon.

“If you ask whether Watson will replace humans, it is very unlikely and is not what we aim for,” Asia-Pacific IBM Watson Director Jason Leonard said during the media event in Seoul, Thursday. “In some areas like call centers, robots may help humans answer simple questions while human workers deal with more complicated tasks. But in most industries that are regulated by laws, we believe the time when cognitive systems like Watson replace humans still has a long way to go.”

Nao-mi has been developed by SoftBank based on the Watson system and thus is like a sibling to the Japanese telecom operator’s android Pepper, IBM said.

IBM pushed for the development of Watson long before self-learning artificial intelligences (AIs) like Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo attracted massive public interest globally.

Leonard said the cognitive computing technology focuses on helping humans.

“Cognitive systems amplify human cognition, don’t do your thinking for you. They do your research for you so that you can think better,” he said. “Unlike humans, cognitive systems can quickly process massive amounts of data. And advanced ones like Watson not only recognize structured data but also understand natural language to learn how humans communicate.”

He said business cognitive systems can facilitate deeper customer engagement, changing products and services as well as business operations.

IBM Asia-Pacific Cloud Sales Vice President Ashish Kumar said the company’s hybrid cloud computing services can help both large and small enterprise clients shift from hardware-centric infrastructure to a more agile corporate system.

Kumar also said IBM’s latest alliance with SK C&C will boost its presence in the Korean cloud business market, as it will be able to add more cloud service here through its cloud data center scheduled to open in Seoul this summer.