PySpark is a next generation cloud computing engine that uses Python. It allows users to write Spark applications in Python. PySpark applications can access data via the Spark API and process it using Python. The PySpark architecture involves Python code running on worker nodes communicating with Java Virtual Machines on those nodes via sockets. This allows leveraging Python libraries like scikit-learn with Spark. The presentation demonstrated recommender systems and interactive shell usage with PySpark.