How do you combine historical Big Data with machine learning for real-time analytics? An approach is outlined with different software vendors, business use cases, and best practices. "Big Data" has gained a lot of momentum recently. Vast amounts of operational data are collected and stored in Hadoop and other platforms on which historical analysis is conducted. Business intelligence tools and distributed statistical computing are used to find new patterns in this data and gain new insights and knowledge for a variety of use cases: promotions, up- and cross-sell campaigns, improved customer experience, or fraud detection.

Data centers are an ideal environment for machine learning since there is so much data available, said Christopher Yetman, COO at Vantage Data Centers, a data center services provider in Santa Clara, Calif. There is sensor data at the building and physical level, with servers and network devices generating vast amounts of information about their own operations. Humans have used that data in the past, but not to its fullest potential. There are also sensors that generate data about air pressure, humidity, temperature and supply voltage and typically feed into a programmable logic controller, Yetman said. The data can then trigger specific actions at certain thresholds, like when a room begins to get too warm.

On Google's recent Q3 earnings call, Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai said that one "transformative" technology is causing Google to rethink "how we're doing everything." There's a single technology that's causing Google to rethink they way it does everything. The same technology is in the process of transforming many of the biggest names in tech -- Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, UBER, Twitter -- not to mention smaller, up-and-coming startups. Entrepreneur and thought leader Peter Diamandis say that it will "do more to improve healthcare than all the biological sciences combined" and will generate large amounts of wealth and abundance. Billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla agrees, saying that over the next 50 years, it will drive abundance, transform industries, and impact almost every part of society.

The world's first Artificially Intelligent physicist is here, and it has already replicated a Nobel Prize-winning experiment -- one that involved creating an ultracold state of matter called Bose-Einstein condensate. This network was named by EContent Magazine to its "Trendsetting Products of 2014" list.

Google brings Artificial Intelligence study to a whole new level with Parsey McParseface. It is software that aids computers comprehend human speech and text. This parser software, called SyntaxNet, tears down sentences into components to understand better. On Thursday, SyntaxNet became free software so anyone can access and use it for free and modify it however they want. This is massive milestone to AI developers trying to obtain computers to develop natural language.

In a bid to develop its artificial intelligence ("AI") capabilities, Sony Corporation (SNE - Analyst Report) announced an investment in a U.S. technology start-up, Cogitai. The financial details of the deal were kept under wraps. The investment comes at a time when technology stalwarts such as Facebook, Inc. (FB - Analyst Report), Apple Inc. (AAPL - Analyst Report) and Google are spending aggressively on AI initiatives. California-based Cogitai was founded a year ago by three researchers, and works with technology that enables machines to learn constantly and autonomously from interaction with the real world. The companies believe that the next step in AI field is the development of autonomous cognitive development systems that can continually learn from experience and react appropriately in a wide range of task domains.

Silicon Valley is going crazy over bots. In particular, chat bots, software designed to mimic conversations with real humans. According to a report from The Information, Google may launch a new chat bot initiative at Google I/O today. Google is reportedly developing tools for developers to create their own chat bots that live inside large messaging platforms like Facebook's Messenger or Google's own Hangouts. Rather than just create its own bots, Google wants to create a platform that other parties can use to build bots for their own needs.

"[It's a] data token that boils you down to a data object," says Pete Kazanjy, founder of TalentBin, a service that uses social media to find job recruits (now part of Monster). That's especially true for hard numbers, said Google's SVP of "people operations" Laszlo Bock in a 2013 New York Times interview. "One of the things we've seen from all our data crunching is that GPAs are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless," said Bock. A growing wave of hiring tech firms are ingesting far more information about candidates--surveys, work samples, social media posts, word choice, even facial expressions. Adding artificial intelligence (AI), they promise to assess work skills as well as personality traits like empathy, grit, and prejudice to provide a richer understanding of who the applicant is and whether they will fit.

It's been a big 12 months for Google. On Wednesday, the tech giant kicks off its I/O developers conference with a keynote address expected to cover plans for its Android mobile operating system, and possibly other ventures including Android Auto. You can follow live updates right here starting at 1 p.m. ET. It's the first under parent company Alphabet, formed last year. This is also the first I/O as CEO for Sundar Pichai, who claimed the top role at Google when Alphabet was announced.

A joint venture between a U.S. producer and a Chinese entertainment investor, announced Tuesday, is hoping to make a live-action film based on the classic video game, Tetris. To be exact, Threshold Global Studios, a partnership between California studio Threshold Entertainment Group -- owned by producer Larry Kasanoff -- and China's Seven Star Works -- owned by investor Bruno Wu -- plans to make a science fiction trilogy based on the popular 1980s game. A statement released by the joint venture said the film adaptation of Tetris will be the company's first project and will be produced at a budget of about 80 million. The film will be shot in China and feature an ensemble cast, including Chinese actors. The financing for the film, as well as a story, are already in place, according to the statement.