We talk about artificial intelligence (AI), robots, and machine learning as if they're coming soon, or are just some tech pipe dream. In fact, a special report from Bank of America, Merrill Lynch predicts the global market for AI and robots will be just under $153 billion by 2020, and some industries will experience up to a 30% productivity increase through the use of those technologies alone. That can either terrify you if you've seen too many sci-fi films, or excite you if you consider the upside and benefits it could yield. The reality probably lies somewhere in the middle. There will be disruption – there will be jobs and perhaps even whole industries that see massive displacement from robots and other "intelligent" machines. And that says nothing of the inherent risk associated with creating something capable of logical thinking without emotion. The robots may not rise up and exterminate humanity any time soon, but the development of true AI is closer than you think.

A new studio replaces a former institution on the yoga scene; a day of fitness with L.A.'s hottest trainers; and a dating app for people into all things good for you. Here's what needs to be on your radar. Mandala occupies the Santa Monica space that once belonged to the Golden Bridge Yoga Center, which focused on kundalini yoga. The new studio, which had its soft opening May 19, has extensive offerings such as yoga for healthy backs and chanting 101, with emphasis on yoga for the body, mind and spirit. "It's important that the practice is taught in a holistic way," said co-founder Saul David Raye.

Even though my work often mystified you, you and Dad have been my biggest fans throughout my over 25-year data management career. Not surprising, as you were both dental professionals, not data professionals! But as you started hearing about data in the media more and more, your interest piqued to better understand it. I've thoroughly enjoyed writing my letters to you over the past few years covering a range of topics including Data management, Metadata, and Data Governance, as well as several industry trends like Big Data, the Internet of Things, Cloud computing and my last letter discussing Digital Transformation. I know you've heard the term AI before.

Artificial intelligence is where the competition is in IT, with Microsoft and Google both parading powerful, always-available AI tools for the enterprise at their respective developer conferences, Build and I/O, in May. It's not just about work: AI software can now play chess, go, and some retro video games better than any human -- and even drive a car better than many of us. These superhuman performances, albeit in narrow fields, are all possible thanks to the application of decades of AI research -- research that is increasingly, as at Build and I/O, making it out of the lab and into the real world. Alexa and Samsung Electronics' Bixby may offer less-than-superhuman performance, but they also require vastly less power than a supercomputer to run. Businesses can dabble on the edges of these, for example developing Alexa "skills" that allow Amazon Echo owners to interact with a company without having to dial its call center, or jump right in, using the various cloud-based speech recognition and text-to-speech "-as-a-service" offerings to develop full-fledged automated call centers of their own.

At this year's Google I/O developer conference keynote, AI took center stage. The company announced a new Google.ai Part of Google's push for AI also included announcing that Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are now available for any developer to use via the Google Compute Engine. TPUs are used by the company to train machine learning models, which give the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. "We want it to be possible for hundreds of thousands of developers to use machine learning," said Pichai.

Brightcrowd -- helps you find meaningful professional connections Capsule.ai Abi -- your virtual health assistant Ada -- can help if you're feeling unwell Airi -- personal health coach Alz.ai -- helps you care for loved ones with Alzheimer's Amélie -- chatbot for mental health Bitesnap -- food recognition from meal photos to help count calories doc.ai -- makes lab results easy to understand Gyan -- helps you go from symptoms to likely conditions Joy -- helps you track and improve your mental health Kiwi -- helps you to reduce and quit smoking Tess by X2AI-- therapist in your pocket Sleep.ai Amazon Echo / Alexa -- everyday personal assistant for in-home Apple Siri -- everyday personal assistant on iPhone and Mac Cortana-- everyday personal assistant on PC and Windows devices Facebook M -- competitors to Siri, Now and Cortana Focus -- helps you focus, get tasks done and prioritise your day Gatebox -- a holographic anime assistant in an espresso machine Google Assistant -- everyday personal assistant Hound -- everyday personal assistant Ling -- similar to Amazon Echo Mycroft -- is the world's first open source voice assistant Remi-- like Siri with an interface Spoken -- virtual assistant with an interface Viv -- like Siri but 10x better Clara -- meeting scheduling assistant Julie Desk -- meeting scheduling assistant (aimed at C-Suite) Kono -- meeting scheduling assistant Mimetic -- meeting scheduling assistant My Ally -- handles meeting scheduling and manages calendar SkipFlag -- automatically discover and organise your work Vesper -- virtual assistant aimed at C-Suite x.ai-- meeting scheduling assistant Zoom.ai -- personal assistant to help you at work Jottr -- content and news app that learns what you like and don't like News360 -- learns what you enjoy and finds stories you'll like Entrupy -- helps detect if high-end designer products are authentic Fify -- helps you shop for clothing GoFind -- helps you find clothing online by taking a photo Mode.ai -- helps you find clothing online Abe -- fast answers about your finances Andy -- a personal Tax Accountant Ara -- helps you budget Bond -- helps you achieve your financial goals Mylo -- rounds up your everyday purchases and invest the spare change Olivia -- helps you manage your finances Responsive-- institutional-grade active portfolio management Roger -- helps you pay bills easily Wallet -- AI for your daily finance decisions Xoe.ai -- AI lending chatbot Firedrop -- websites designed automatically, just add content and publish Hashley -- ironic hashtag and comment generator for your photos Millions.ai Aerial -- home activity, movement and identity sensor Bridge.ai Eli -- helps you learn a new language from conversations through your day Kick.ai

Alexa is now humming along in my living room most evenings. I use the voicebot routinely to ask about basketball scores and discover obscure facts about people and places. The more I use the bot, the more I wonder how it could evolve. Here are five ways I'd like Alexa to help me during the day. Proactive voicebots are already becoming a "thing" in 2017.

Nuclear technology can power an entire city or flatten it. Artificial intelligence is similar, in that it can be used as a tool for great good or a weapon for greater evil. For example, we've all read those gloomy reports about AI causing mass unemployment -- but they assume that AI will entirely replace people in the affected jobs and that AI will rapidly advance to allow a totally autonomous enterprise. The truth is that AI can't do the all of the work even when it comes to jobs that have high potential for automation. Most jobs still require some amount of human intelligence, and employers want to make the best use of it possible.

The key marketing question to ask of AI is: Does this application of artificial intelligence increase relevance and usefulness for the customer? Forty-six per cent of millennials with smart phones use voice recognition software today, and over 70% of voice recognition users are happy with the experience. Gartner estimates that by 2020, 40% of mobile interactions between people and their virtual personal assistants will be powered by the data gathered from users in cloud-based neural networks. How can we best initiate a broader, in-depth discussion about how society will co-evolve with this technology, and connect computer science and social sciences to develop intelligent machines that are not only'smart,' but also socially responsible?"

At last week's Google I/O conference, a few choice terms came up repeatedly. They were mentioned so often that New York Times technology columnist Farhad Manjoo joked that "machine learning" had reached "70 trillion" utterances only a few hours into the conference's first day. I have been counting occurrences of the phrase "now, we use machine learning" here at Google IO and I got to 70 trillion Google is using AI to improve just about every realm of its vast technology empire. On Android, for example, the company announced an update to its virtual assistant with futuristic features like Google Lens, which can "read" photos in real time. It also announced a hyper-fast AI processor built to grow its cloud computing business, and a more "proactive" Google Home product. With Google Lens, your smartphone camera won't just see what you see, but will also understand what you see to help you take action.