Machine learning can fuel smarter online experiences

Consider how Google generates answers to questions. For the past several years, Google has relied on its Knowledge Graph, a large-scale effort to collect information about objects in the digital world and map relationships among things. Ask for information about "Leonardo da Vinci" and Google displays a panel next to the search results list summarizing his basic biographical information. Included are thumbnail links to some of his most significant pictures as well as several important artists that other people have searched for. Behind the scenes is a semantic infrastructure.