Google aims to make smartphones that learn, understand the world around them

Last October, Google CEO Sundar Pichai spoke about what machine learning means for Google. He called it "transformative," and said that Google was "rethinking everything we're doing" in the context of machine learning. A subset of artificial intelligence, machine learning is an approach in which "neural network" computers use algorithms to sort through large sets of data, discovering patterns and relationships on their own rather than following predefined rules to solve problems. Google already uses machine learning to fight spam in Gmail and to allow its services to better understand spoken words. And this week the company announced it's working to bring machine learning to the device people spend the most time interacting with: the smartphone.