IBM Watson Health gets taken to the morgue.

After much marketing and buzz, IBM Watson Health has been sold. It had taken an unconventional career path. After success, winning the quiz show Jeopardy, in its youth. IBM Watson was looking for another challenge. It picked medicine. Skipping the usual 6 years of medical school, followed by 10 years as a junior doctor, Watson headed straight for the hardest disease of all - cancer. It didn't do very well.

Huge amounts of money were spent on marketing and shiny new headquarters, dozens of partnerships and projects were announced. In 2019, IEEE Spectrum, reported that around 50 partnerships had been launched between IBM Watson and healthcare organisations None had produced usable tools or apps.

Healthcare is complex. ML is hard. None of these problems can be solved with a big marketing budget. Having over promised and underdelivered for years, what is left of the division has now been sold off.