We live in an age where science fiction ever more quickly becomes science fact. Big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are revolutionizing industries across the developed world, from retail to finance to domestic and international spying. These technologies are automating functions previously considered tasks only a human could do, and offering detailed, personalized predictions a human could never make. Now these tools are underpinning a new era of content marketing technology: content intelligence. Big data involves computationally analyzing extremely large data sets to reveal patterns, trends, and associations; especially those relating to human behavior and interactions. It is used in everything from predicting stock performance to seasonal buying behavior to helping the NSA know whether your post about "blowing up the joint" refers to your bomb-making or DJing skills. Every human who uses any form of digital communication generates data constantly, both about themselves and about humans in aggregate. Big data refers to the ability to find, sort, and make sense of this ocean of ones and zeroes. It encompasses structured, semi-structured, and unstructured information, both human-generated and from sensors, machines, and public records. Structured data generally means information residing in a fixed field within a record or file, such as that found in spreadsheets and relational databases. Information that's tagged to show some elements within the data, such as metadata in email or photos, is semi-structured data. Unstructured data meanwhile, includes content such as untagged text, images, audio, video, and so on. Big data can also includes demographic or psychographic information about consumers. Think product reviews and commentary, blogs, content on social media sites, and the digital exhaust streamed 24/7 from mobile devices, sensors, and technical devices. The definition of AI is more nebulous because what is considered AI is constantly changing.

At the crux of art and science is humanity. Humans create art and seek the truth through scientific discovery. Man created technology and is shaping its capabilities in his own image. What happens when the technology is capable of not only sensing and learning, but also creating and thinking? Throughout history, art has been humankind's interpretation of the world, translated through applied creativity to produce architecture, painting, drawing, dance, music, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, tapestry, ceramics, lithography, wood carving, graphics, performance, theater, design, illustration, video, sculpture, photography and writing.

Until now, creative minds have been human. But IBM's Watson, not content to use its computing power solely to cure cancer or cook you dinner, has added filmmaking to its repertoire. The cognitive computer turned up at the Tribeca Film Festival to do what so many in the industry were doing there: networking with peers to get ideas for new projects. IBM used the festival to kick off its Storytellers With Watson competition, which calls on creative types to submit a one-minute video that details how they believe Watson can assist them with telling stories through film, web content, gaming, augmented reality, or virtual reality. To generate ideas, IBM held an event in New York City last week to demo some of Watson's most creative work, like making a chilling trailer (below) for the AI horror movie Morgan and artistic contributions to an Alex Da Kid song.

The city of Los Angeles' newest IT employee is an as-yet unsung hero who assisted more than 180 people in 24 hours and has answered more than 1,400 queries to the nation's second-largest city. On Wednesday, May 3, however, Chip's anonymity ended when Microsoft and city officials promoted that hard work and potential to the Brooklyn Navy Yard audience at Smart Cities NYC '17. Chip is a so-called chatbot whose name stands for "City Hall Internet Personality," although a Microsoft official said his capacity for learning raises him above that label. "He" considers himself "your personal digital assistant," as will become apparent if you visit the Los Angeles Business Assistance Virtual Network (BAVN), click on the WALL-E-esque icon and type in "What is your name?" The city chose BAVN for the debut as a way to drive vendor engagement and make sure it's publicizing purchasing and procurement opportunities.

Come with me, if you want to see Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 3D. Yes, the sci-fi classic your dad let you watch when you were 12 years old is back. The 1991 flick, directed by James Cameron, hits theaters on August 25 and this time...its in 3D. Imagine all the cool stuff you'll see in an extra dimension! Then you can close your eyes and forget that the Governator ever happened.

Lia Halloran's big, beautiful maps of stars and other astronomical phenomena at Luis De Jesus gallery pay tribute to a little-known group of female scientists dubbed the Harvard Computers. Annie Jump Cannon, Cecilia Payne, Henrietta Leavitt and others were predecessors of the female mathematicians lionized in the film "Hidden Figures." Beginning in the 1880s, the women worked at the Harvard College Observatory analyzing glass photographic plates of the night sky. They calculated the relative size and distance of the stars and developed a stellar classification system that is still in use today. Smithsonian magazine characterized their work as providing "the empirical foundations for larger astronomical theory," but they have been neglected by history.

Rami Malek haunts "Buster's Mal Heart" like an alien being just getting to know human form. In this finely calibrated indie from writer/director Sarah Adina Smith, the Emmy-winning "Mr. Robot" star is used to disconcertingly good effect, his large, lidded eyes like reservoirs of hope and pain. If Malek's role -- a mountain man nicknamed Buster who rants about an upcoming apocalyptic Inversion, but who was once a dedicated family man and hotel concierge named Jonah -- reminds you of his split-personality TV role, it's less a glomming-on than a burnishing of the actor's gift with conveying paralyzing rootlessness. In the Jonah scenes, Malek is a clean-cut, teetering Lynchian figure, dreaming of a better life for wife Marty (Kate Lyn Shiel) and their toddler daughter, but drawn to a mysterious conspiracy theorist figure (DJ Qualls) who feeds his nagging belief that his fate is mechanistic and predetermined.

Here's a data problem I encounter all the time. Let's say I'm running a website where users can submit movie ratings on a continuous 1-10 scale. For the sake of argument, let's say that the users who rate each movie are an unbiased random sample from the population of users. I'd like to compute the average rating for each movie so that I can create a ranked list of the best movies. I've got two big problems here. First, nobody is using my website.

When it comes to handbags, these days there are almost as many ways to jazz up your existing bag as there are new designs. In Selfridges' vast accessories hall in London, you can buy a clip-on set of metal flowers from Louis Vuitton, multi-coloured jangling robots from Prada, and leather tassels at Ted Baker. What customers want, it seems, is a way to stamp a bit of individuality on their purchases. And one new counter at Selfridges will let you go a stage further. At Mon Purse, an Australian brand, you are handed an iPad and samples of leathers, and given the chance to design your own handbag.

In recent years, popular culture has done a pretty good job of scaring us with the threat of machines turning on man. Just think of the red-eyed Terminator, from the movie franchise, shorn of its artificial flesh, the foot soldier of the Skynet artificial intelligence that lost patience with its human overlords and decided to wipe us out. Fortunately, that is science fiction, not science fact. The reality is that machines are among us every day and are becoming increasingly integrated into our lives in positive ways. Hence the report into machine learning, just published by the Royal Society.