Machine learning's trendy tech is powering products all over Silicon Valley, but Chicagoans are using artificial intelligence in a more practical sense, Uptake's Adam McElhinney says. "I see a big contrast between the way Chicago companies are using machine learning and the way some of the Silicon Valley companies are maybe using machine learning," said McElhinney, vice president of data science at the predictive-analytics startup that targets construction, mining and other industrial sectors. "If you look at these companies, they're all solving big, tangible problems for customers -- not trying to sell a 99-cent iPhone app." He joined representatives from Avant, Civis Analytics, Groupon and Narrative Science Thursday evening for "Data-Driven Chicago," an event at Groupon's headquarters where each company shared how they're using machine learning to make sense of massive amounts of data. Affordable sensors -- along with improved connectivity and data storage capacity -- are creating opportunities across Uptake's verticals, McElhinney said.