Audi recently introduced a HAL 9000 of sorts for all of its new car models. , for Avatar-based Virtual Co-driver System, Audi's HAL was developed by researchers at Technical University Munich and Audi engineers. It functions as an in-vehicle expert about all the car's features and systems. The AviCoS system uses virtual reality and a video avatar to interact with the driver via spoken language. The system monitors what's happening with the car, but it avoids distracting the driver at inopportune moments -- during acceleration, for example.

A opened this week. Its core technology is an artificial intelligence engine designed to find experts inside your own company, and also present your own expertise. The company's algorithms can scan through your professional activity and figure out what you're good at. It then compiles a profile that, with your approval, is made available to co-workers or to the public.

When you're working on a project and need some advice, assistance or additional manpower, you simply search the Whodini system like you would Google. The algorithms match your search to the people who can help you.

Whodini doesn't have fancy voice interaction. But the idea of using software to sift through massive amounts of data and then make sense of that data and make suggestions based on it is the secret sauce behind this product -- and it's the basic functionality of the many HALs that we'll meet in the coming months and years.