The scientists' apprentice

Big data has met its match. In field after field, the ability to collect data has exploded, overwhelming human insight and analysis. But the computing advances that helped deliver the data have also conjured powerful new tools for making sense of it all. In a revolution that extends across much of science, researchers are unleashing artificial intelligence (AI), often in the form of artificial neural networks, on these mountains of data. Unlike earlier attempts at AI, such "deep learning" systems don't need to be programmed with a human expert's knowledge.