Where MapReduce was about generating and processing data sets, TensorFlow is about harnessing them to build "smart" software programs that can do cool stuff. Machine learning already plays a role in applications ranging from Netflix recommendations to your Facebook feed to self-driving cars. In the years to come it will find an even broader range of applications--some ingenious, others inane. Google won't pocket a check when people use TensorFlow to build their own machine-learning software. But rest assured it will find fresh ways to profit from a world in which yet another of its core technologies has become ubiquitous.

As a physicist, I was originally trained to describe the world in terms of exact equations. Later, as an experimental high-energy particle physicist, I learned to deal with vast amounts of data with errors and with evaluating competing models to describe the data. Business data, taken in bulk, is often messier and harder to model than the physics data on which I cut my teeth. Simply put, human behavior is complicated, inconsistent, and not well understood, and it's affected by many variables. If your intention is to predict which previous customers are most likely to subscribe to a new offer, based on historical patterns, you may discover there are nonobvious correlations in addition to obvious ones, as well as quite a bit of randomness.

HG Data combs the internet and offline resources to capture B2B technology installation data that provides competitive intelligence to sales teams, marketers, and brands. Through supervised machine learning, HG Data continuously trains machines to identify product information presented on websites and buried in unstructured documents. The result is a large collection of semantic rules that serve as training sets of text patterns used to identify specific products, which in turn leads to non-supervised learning. Traditionally distributing data and analysis through channel partners, HG Data recently launched HG Focus, a freemium Chrome extension giving business development and sales reps instant insight into the technology stack of companies when viewing their webpages. With distribution partners across contact vendors, CRM, predictive marketing analytics, and retargeting, HG Data is rapidly expanding their vertical coverage.

But users won't be speaking to a person, they'll be talking to "Tay," Microsoft's new bot that's powered by artificial intelligence. The easiest way to converse with Tay is on Twitter. All users have to do is tweet at it as if it were a real person and it'll tweet back in a kind of internet patois that doesn't sound like it's coming from a computer. Tay is also chatting on apps like Snapchat, Kik, and Groupme. Tay speaks like a teen because that's how Microsoft's research division built it. According to Microsoft, Tay is "targeted at 18 to 24 year olds in the US." "Tay is an artificial intelligence chat bot designed to engage and entertain through casual and playful conversation," Microsoft explains.

In March 2001, futurist Ray Kurzweil published an essay arguing that humans found it hard to comprehend their own future. It was clear from history, he argued, that technological change is exponential -- even though most of us are unable to see it -- and that in a few decades, the world would be unrecognizably different. "We won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate)," he wrote, in'The Law of Accelerating Returns'. Fifteen years on, Kurzweil is a director of engineering at Google and his essay has acquired a cult following among futurists. Some of its predictions are outlandish or over-hyped -- but technology experts say that its basic tenets often hold.

When most people think of artificial intelligence, they think of Cylons, or Terminators, or HAL--sentient robots who turn on their masters in an effort to destroy the human race. But companies like SwiftKey, who are making helpful, smartphone-compatible artificial intelligence apps, are trying to change that. SwiftKey Neural Alpha is the world's first artificially intelligent smartphone keyboard. The keyboard uses machine learning to help predict what words the user is likely to enter by understanding the way the user puts sentences together. "Human language itself is a pattern," said Michael Smith, VP of Product at SwiftKey.

Decades of research and billions of dollars have poured into developing artificial intelligence, which has crossed over from science fiction to gameshow novelty to the cusp of widespread business applications. Artificial intelligence is an area of computer science where computers are designed to think and operate much like a human brain, supported by advanced forms of computing and software. But it's only as smart as the amount of information fed into its memory banks. The more information, the smarter it gets. The greatest advancements have been demonstrated in the area of game playing, but AI is now showing its mettle in the business world. "People are starting to kick the tires, looking to see how it can help their business and the bottom line," said David Schubmehl, who follows the AI field for research firm IDC.

Economist Andrew McAfee concludes in his TedTalk "What will future jobs look like?" (already 3yrs old) that "The new'algorithm enabling' technology is here today, and banks could use it to fundamentally change the value proposition for their customers." "The future belongs to those that can recognize opportunities before they become obvious". Artificial intelligence, which encompasses these days all sorts of'algorithm enabling' technology, is creeping into our lives. Asset management and wealth management is no exception. Mentors at Fintech accelerators are advising entrepreneurs to drop the idea of creating the next Bloomberg and are suggesting a focus on AI finance.

Last week on the Alphabet earnings call Sundar Pichai made several explicit references to machine learning. This is meaningful on several levels and is also a warning shot for entire industries who don't view Google as a competitor (but should). "I also want to point out that our investments in machine learning and artificial intelligence are a priority for us. Machine learning has long powered things like voice search, translation and much more. And our machine learning is hard at work in mobile services like Now on Tap which quickly assist you by providing additional useful information for whatever you are doing, right in the moment, anywhere on your phone."

Chip Somodevilla / GettyRobot parrots aren't the only reason to look over your shoulder. Artificial intelligence is going bananas right now. Google made headlines with it huge victory in the ancient game of Go a few weeks ago. And AI is entering into the marketplace at a historic rate, changing industries as complex as Wall Street in the process. If you get the feeling that we're at the start of a tidal wave, you might be right -- take it from Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.