It seems like the world is getting smarter around us. Technologies seem to know what we are going to do before we do it. Our phones know what restaurants are nearby. Our computers know just what we have been thinking about buying. Even our TVs and Kindles know what we want next to entertain us.

Is there one term to describe the fantastic machines and infinite computing power built around the cloud, innovative chips, and semiconductors already in use by a growing number of companies? "Artificial intelligence (AI) technology," according to SAP's senior director of advanced analytics, Chandran Saravana, on Coffee Break with Game Changers Radio, presented by SAP on May 3, 2017. He and SAP's senior director of Big Data initiatives, David Jonker, joined producer/moderator Bonnie D. Graham (follow on Twitter: @SAPRadio and #SAPRadio) for a lively discussion on "Machine Learning: Man vs. Machine Or Man Machine?" Chandran observed, "Businesses are already relying heavily on this level of AI. But when it comes to machine learning, you have to bridge a big gap to teach the machines how to learn – so machines can become smarter every day." It describes a computer science subfield that analyzes algorithms iteratively to find hidden insights, but without being explicitly told where to look.

According to the researcher's findings, published in the Nanoscale Research Letters journal, their creation functions like an actual biological synapse and may bring us one step closer to creating full-fledged artificial neural networks. "Four-nanometer-thick devices display the ability of gradual switching in both directions, thus emulating long-term potentiation/depression properties akin to biological synapses," the researchers say. This new technology may well be implemented in the development of computer systems that operate like biological neural networks, or even an artificial intelligence that can'think' like a human, possibly further bridging the gap between man and machine.