From the moment that IBM built a computer that could play chess better than a human Grand Master, the company has had its sights set on a new era of cognitive computing. With Watson, IBM has taken machine learning and contextual understanding to the next level. Watson can understand natural language questions and problems, and learn from each deduction, to ensure that next time it will understand even better. We’re still a way off sci-fi grade AI, but Watson is definitely a big step in the right direction.