Watson, the computer that whipped several human opponents, but not all, in Jeopardy, is now hitting the databases to brush up on its medical knowledge.

The AP reports the IBM computer is being retooled to listen to patients’ complaints of symptoms and suggest possible diagnoses and treatments. To bone up on his medical knowledge, Watson is cramming medical journals and textbooks.

While the computer’s increasingly intimate knowledge of what makes humans tick will no doubt be used by Skynet to further humanity’s undoing — that is if the predictions of the Terminator films are to be believed — hopefully he can provide some good to us before things get ugly.

‘Jeopardy!’-winning computer delving into medicine [AP via Google]

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