Have you noticed how computers have gotten smaller while getting smarter? They've also gotten cheaper: now there's a computer inside anything with an on/off switch. All of these newly intelligent devices -- toasters to toothbrushes, thermostats and lightbulbs and cars -- are now being networked, talking to each other, and businesses, and consumers. Why shouldn't your car tell your house that you're nearly home so that the house can tell the oven to preheat to the proper temperature for that fish it knows you just bought, because you made the purchase with your phone and your phone told it so? So, behind every device is a customer, and the next generation of customers expect a connected, smart experience.

It ain't rocket packs, not quite yet, but it does feel like the future. The smartest brands in history: Google anticipating your search bar entries, Facebook putting together a personalized news feed, Amazon knowing every embarrassing detail of your interest in cookbooks and novelty toilet paper, and Netflix inventing a whole new genre based on your viewing preferences ("Nostalgic Hawaiian Sci-Fi Family Cop Documentaries"). All of these technologies are powered by artificial intelligence: systems based on invisible, complex systems that process more data than has ever been produced -- learning from it, responding, and predicting. As a New York Times story reports, interest in AI in the 1980s created a minor boom. Without any viable business uses, though, it led to an "AI winter."