The Sensor-Rich, Data-Scooping Future - NYTimes.com

Perhaps the "big data" meme is fading; it appears only in the article category and tag list, in this case

"G.E., Google and others expect that knowing and manipulating these patterns is the heart of a new era of global efficiency, centered on machines that learn and predict what is likely to happen next.

“The core thing Google is doing is machine learning,” Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, said at an industry event on Wednesday. Sensor-rich self-driving cars, connected thermostats or wearable computers, he said, are part of Google’s plan “to do things that are likely to be big in five to 10 years. It just seems like automation and artificial intelligence makes people more productive, and smarter.”"

The Sensor-Rich, Data-Scooping Future - NYTimes.com