From my Forbes blog:

Google cofounder Sergey Brin said only half-jokingly back in 2002 that his company aimed to create the equivalent of the intelligent computer HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but without the bug that resulted in it, you know, killing people.

More than a decade later, Google isn’t nearly there, for better or worse. But lately, it has been aiming much more directly at building HAL, or what’s sometimes called the Google Brain. As I wrote in a recent article, a fast-emerging branch of artificial intelligence called deep learning is helping Google and other companies and researchers produce significant advances in machines that at least approach the way we think. It won’t be long–for better or worse–before their work also has a profound impact on marketing and advertising as well. …

Read the rest of the analysis.