The Marriage of Data & Art: Game of Thrones and IBM's Watson

IBM has had a long-standing history of being at the cutting edge of Watson-like technology. With multiple media appearances and beating humans at almost everything invented, Watson has emerged victorious, time and again. It has become one of the most advanced technology solutions that we have and has gained a lot of attention because of it.

How Watson Can Create Magic

More recently, IBM has analysed Game of Thrones (one of the most popular shows ever created) and designed a unique solution that has created a stir among fans and writers alike. This has really taken the idea of innovation and entertainment to the next level and it's only the start for Watson.

If you’re a fan of the books on which the whole show is based, then you’re not sure what to expect. There have been changes made to the story arc so that fans are kept interested in the series. Nobody knows what’s going to happen and here comes Watson.

Author George R.R. Martin hasn’t announced a release date for the next books, and the TV show will move ahead of the books now. The plot thickens, both in terms of the book and TV shows, and the way that the brand will be handled in the years to come. Maybe there are some ups and downs – but who knows.

The Evolution of the Narrative

What’s the result of all of this? Fans of the books are preparing for spoiler alerts. They don’t want to tune in to find out, but the really want to deep down insight. This is where IBM researcher Vinith Misra comes in. He’s teasing fans alike, to use AI and Watson to be able to determine what happens next.

Now a human would look at the overall storyline and say XYZ will happen based on past books and movies. But what would a computer say? Quite a lot actually! Watson analysed the personalities of the characters in the books using its personality analyser tool to get to know what readers might expect in the 6th rendition.

There may be some spoilers here, so if you’re a fan of the saga then you may want to look away. The data revealed some interesting facts –

#Daenerys Targaryen embraces her inner Khaleesi and realizes the impact of becoming a queen. She is losing her openness, naivety and liberation that made her what she was. She’s blossoming into someone who’s mature, caring and now has negative emotions of worry, anger and duty-bound

# Sansa Stark used to be extroverted and cheery, but now has become more self-conscious and duty-bound to herself.

# Arya, her sister, has become rougher on the inside because she’s been hardened by all the things that have happened throughout her life. She’s less prone to worry and focuses more on action rather than anxiety.

# Tyrion Lannister's initially more trusting and discipline-oriented personality has made way to being more vulnerable and emotional as an alcoholic

# The famous Jon Snow has become an intelligent and cautious leader, where previously he was angry, vulnerable and had a chip on his shoulder.

These character arcs that Watson mentioned were sharp left turns from what we were being shown all these years. If this comes true, then we would have cracked the code of effective narrative. If AI and Watson can create beautiful stories for us, and understand the changes that personalities can take, then there’s no need telling how it can affect ‘talent training’, ‘personality development’, or how we look at culture development. From a business standpoint its ground-breaking work.

How Did Watson Do It?

While many are confused about how a computer was able to understand human emotions. It's not so complicated when you look at the processes that the computer underwent. Watson isn’t reading the actions of these characters the way that a human would. It has been accurate all this while because its been automatically looking for clues and analysing them. Mini bytes of information that may seem inconsequential to us, are huge for Watson when it's trying to understand the truth behind the mystery.

E.g. when Watson is trying to figure out a character’s altruism score (so that it can see what happens when they’re faced with a tough challenge), Watson is looking out for the usage of first-person plurals. ("we," "us," "our," "ours") and words like courage, bravery, daring, certain, definite, confident, easy, and faith.

If a person swears a lot or doesn’t use terms that dictate maturity or character, then they are deemed as having a negative altruism score. This algorithm can make these characters reduced to 1s and 0s, but we can see this picture in a brighter light now that we understand how we can codify soft areas like – character, will and persona.

Also, when Watson is trying to figure out a character’s assertiveness score, its looking for keywords like fight, forgive, gave, meet, negotiate, explain and persuade. Some of the more assertive characters according to Watson are Arya and Brienne. The least assertive are Barristan and Davos.

What This Means for Business

This helps out a lot, in the business world, when an algorithm can use metadata like this from emails or phones, to be able to accurately determine which leader is suitable for what role. In other words, if we were to give tests to all employees and use Watson to gauge their personality type, we can make better hiring decisions as well.

We wouldn’t need to rely on judgement or human error, that can prove costly in the future. We can go ahead with a rationally well-thought out computer code that can design a test as well to judge which person is what character.

You can make sure that you hire a diverse team and a great visionary to lead them, if you understand how the narrative plays out in the minds of these team members. If the narrative is well balanced, then you can expect great results. However, if you mix up individual messes together, you may see a negative impact.

Conclusion

Watson has done what few others could do – and that is the ability to codify human emotions and personality. It's going to change the way that we think about management.