This quote (copy-pasted below) details why IBM decided not to use the name "Watson" which is how they have branded their super-computer around the world but when they bring the technology to Africa they call it "Lucy" after the earliest known human descendant, whose remains were discovered on the continent. It is unclear from this presentation what the technical difference is between "Lucy" and "Watson."
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Quote from Transcript:
"These problems are well stated, well known. Many of them are almost cliches, the problems are hard problems, the difficult to solve problems in Africa. So how are we going to address them? Well, project was...now why have we called this Lucy? Not far from here, about 3 million years ago, a woman walked upright. The name would be... Lucy, she's been called by the anthropological community, the archaeological community, Lucy. We don't know a lot about her but we strongly suspect and believe that we are all, we are all every one of us is related to her. And she lived in an environment...in a beautiful environment, which we all enjoy here in eastern Africa, in Rift Valley. And she lived in an environment and she managed, and she managed to be part of something that would become today's humans. So we chose the name Lucy, because Lucy reminds us that we are all connected. And we're all connected to our environment. And we're all connected to those hard problems, those problems of energy, and food and health. All the problems that Lucy had to deal with in her environment. That's why we call [inaudible] and what's Lucy going to do? Lucy is going to help us to marry together cognitive computing and problems of Africa."
