Money and Finance
- The Soul Of A Hedge Fund 'machine'
Link to: The Soul of a Hedge Fund 'Machine' The Bridgewater founder talks about how his firm measures employees and economies to steer its $160 billion in investments. How do you build the world's largest hedge fund? Bridgewater...
- Ibm's Watson And The Healthcare Industry
From the book Cracking the Code: “One such application for Watson could be in the field of medicine; Watson’s virtually limitless data storage capability combined with its incredible recall ability makes it a natural diagnostician. Imagine if Watson’s...
- Tedxvancouver - Nolan Watson - Compassion Kills
Thanks to Shai for passing this along. After becoming the youngest CFO (age 26) of Silver Wheaton, a multi-billion dollar public company, Watson went on to build Silver Wheaton into the largest metal streaming company in the world. Today, as Chief Executive...
- Bridgewater Takes Grim View Of 2012
Bridgewater Associates has made big money for investors in recent years by staying bearish on much of the global economy. As the new year rings in, the hedge fund firm has no plans to change that gloomy view. Robert Prince, co-chief investment officer...
- Watson Shows 59 Is New 30 - By Thomas Friedman
A story about Tom Watson at the British Open that I enjoyed. A wonderful but cruel game Also, as Watson himself appreciates, the way he lost the tournament underscored why golf is the sport most like life. He hit two perfect shots on the 18th hole in...
Money and Finance
David Ferrucci: Life After Watson
Thanks to Andrew for passing this along.
To the degree there was a human face of Watson, the “Jeopardy!” computer champion, it was David Ferrucci. He was the I.B.M. researcher who led the development of Watson, an artificial intelligence engine. The goateed computer scientist was always articulate and at ease in front of a camera or a microphone.
Dr. Ferrucci has left I.B.M. to join the giant hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates. And the weight of the Watson-related fame, it seems, played a role. “I was so linked to the Watson achievement, and where I.B.M. was taking it, that I felt I was almost losing my identity,” he said in a recent interview.
After Watson beat the best human Jeopardy champions in 2011, its artificial intelligence technology was directed toward new challenges, like assisting doctors in making diagnoses in a research project at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Ferrucci led that next-generation Watson research as well. But he went to Bridgewater at the end of last year. Bridgewater, a private company, made no announcement of its new hire. Yet word of Dr. Ferrucci’s departure from I.B.M. has been circulating among scientists in the artificial intelligence field. And I caught up with him recently for an interview, supplemented by a lengthy e-mail he titled, “My Reflections.”
Dr. Ferrucci, 51, said he had “a great, great career” at I.B.M., spanning 20 years, and “they paid me very well.”
He said he “never imagined myself at a hedge fund,” but eventually the appeal of working in a smaller environment in an entirely new field for him — applying artificial intelligence to macroeconomic modeling — won him over.
Dr. Ferrucci said the more recent work he was doing at I.B.M., called WatsonPaths, was the direction he thought artificial intelligence research needed to go to make further advances, and it was the approach he saw Bridgewater pursuing to economic modeling.
- The Soul Of A Hedge Fund 'machine'
Link to: The Soul of a Hedge Fund 'Machine' The Bridgewater founder talks about how his firm measures employees and economies to steer its $160 billion in investments. How do you build the world's largest hedge fund? Bridgewater...
- Ibm's Watson And The Healthcare Industry
From the book Cracking the Code: “One such application for Watson could be in the field of medicine; Watson’s virtually limitless data storage capability combined with its incredible recall ability makes it a natural diagnostician. Imagine if Watson’s...
- Tedxvancouver - Nolan Watson - Compassion Kills
Thanks to Shai for passing this along. After becoming the youngest CFO (age 26) of Silver Wheaton, a multi-billion dollar public company, Watson went on to build Silver Wheaton into the largest metal streaming company in the world. Today, as Chief Executive...
- Bridgewater Takes Grim View Of 2012
Bridgewater Associates has made big money for investors in recent years by staying bearish on much of the global economy. As the new year rings in, the hedge fund firm has no plans to change that gloomy view. Robert Prince, co-chief investment officer...
- Watson Shows 59 Is New 30 - By Thomas Friedman
A story about Tom Watson at the British Open that I enjoyed. A wonderful but cruel game Also, as Watson himself appreciates, the way he lost the tournament underscored why golf is the sport most like life. He hit two perfect shots on the 18th hole in...