An easy way to get some exposure to machine learning Bloomberg Professional Services

Background After existing mostly in the realm of science fiction for decades, artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming science fact in our everyday lives. Products like IBM's Watson, which bested humans on the game show "Jeopardy!" a few years ago, have given way to electronic home assistants like Amazon's Alexa and smartphone-based aides like Apple's Siri and Google Assistant. AI and machine learning aren't yet all the way there -- and tech industry giant Elon Musk has been among those saying there's real reason to be worried about these technologies getting beyond human control -- but there's more than enough to the industry at this point to interest investors and governments around the world, and AI's effect on the economy is likely to only get bigger in the coming years. Through early October, 2017 merger-and-acquisition activity in AI totaled $2.39 billion over 141 deals. That compares with 89 deals for $1.87 billion in all of 2016, and 35 deals worth $371.8 million in 2015.