Does Machine Learning Really Work?

Does machine learning really work? Over the past decade, machine learning has evolved from a field of laboratory demonstrations to a field of significant commercial value. Machine-learning algorithms have now learned to detect credit card fraud by mining data on past transactions, learned to steer vehicles driving autonomously on public highways at 70 miles an hour, and learned the reading interests of many individuals to assemble personally customized electronic newsAbstracts. This article, based on the keynote talk presented at the Thirteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, samples a number of recent accomplishments in machine learning and looks at where the field might be headed.