One example of what computers can do with data they understand is an ‘answer engine’ called Wolfram Alpha.

What’s special about Wolfram Alpha is that it solves factual queries directly instead of offering a page with potential sources for the answer as normal search engines do.

Wolfram Alpha computes the answer from structured data and provides answers and relevant visualisations from a core knowledge base of curated, structured data.

The service is based on Wolfram Research’s earlier product, Mathematica, a programming package that includes computer algebra, symbolic and numerical computation and statistic capabilities as some of its features.

The legacy of Mathematica means that Wolfram Alpha is especially good at answering mathematical questions and will usually include a human-readable solution in the answer.

At the time of its launch in 2009, The Independent hailed Wolfram Alpha as ‘the biggest internet revolution for a generation’.

“The first step towards what many consider to be the internet’s Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does”, technology reporter Andrew Johnson wrote at the time.

Wolfram Alpha was voted the greatest computer innovation of 2009 by Popular Science.

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