Google's AI engine

Well, it looks like Google is trying to help others use its own machine learning algorithms. At Google I/O this week, Google announced their new Google Prediction API. It promises to help predict the future based on past data. I'm not so sure about that, but it is very cool to see cloud-based services such as this one to further the AI field.

It sounds like the prediction API is mostly focused on looking at a ton of old data, and based on patterns found in that data, answer questions about how the data may look in the future. It remains to be seen if more current data can be fed in, and as the system learns more and more, does it get better at predicting? Or, does the data need to be fed in all at once, run a huge learning algorithm over it (taking a very long time to complete), and then repeat that every time you get new data?

I'll have to play around with it and see how it works before I pass judgment, but either way, it is a boon for AI in general!