TBT: Bob Dylan and IBM’s Watson Cover Love, Language, and AI Evolution

IBM Watson is probably best known for that one time he crushed reigning Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings at his own game, but this series of IBM spots shows that this artificial intelligence is more than just a pretty… face? In this commercial, Watson sits down with folk-king Bob Dylan and gets a little nostalgic while he shows off his cognitive abilities (read: computer brain power), which include being able to read 800 hundred million pages per second while simultaneously identifying and analyzing the content. Watson speed-read every lyric written by Dylan and easily points out the recurring themes of love and time, some of our favorite TBT topics.

This is one of three :30 spots created by Ogilvy & Mathers to demonstrate just how smart a cognitive computer consulting unit can be. Watson doesn’t just compute; he reasons and learns. He can analyze personality and tone of voice (don’t you dare yell at him). IBM wants to show big companies and decision makers how Watson can help them outthink just about anything—creativity, competitors, and even cancer.

Another spot in the campaign stars young actress Annabelle, meant to be a cancer survivor. IBM has built Watson to dig into big piles of data and sift through things like cancer research, because there’s so much of it. 800 million pages per second means Watson could help doctors find a cure that much faster. The other spot features Ken Jennings, who’s still a little bitter about his loss to a computer.

Watson has been designed to outthink the limits of creativity, but let’s just remember he can’t speak sarcasm—which means The Creative Ham is too smart for Watson. Booyah.