Stephen King takes on IBM supercomputer Watson

In one of IBM’s latest commercials, the company sits bestselling author (and arguably Maine’s most famous resident) Stephen King down with its celebrity supercomputer Watson to talk about storytelling.

Watson’s IBM predecessor beat one of the world’s foremost chess players, and Watson itself has famously beaten trivia champs on the game show “Jeopardy.”

Watson is built to sift through data and information at inhuman speeds and then reach human-like conclusions. But can it handle the creative process like Stephen King?

IBM is selling the idea it can use Watson to help business clients better reach audiences by making human connections, sort of like those King creates between readers and characters in his books. Which, when you think about it that way, seems kind of creepy.

But at least if Watson is thinking about making companies relatable, it’s not pondering a “Terminator”-style world takeover, so that’s good. Keep it distracted, Uncle Stevie!