Machine learning for the masses

NSF grant to UCLA computer science professors Todd Millstein and Guy Van den Broeck will support research to democratize emerging AI-based technology. Two computer scientists at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have received a four-year, $947,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation to make machine learning – a branch of artificial intelligence where computer programs learn and improve on their own – more widely available and easier to work with. "Machine learning has been really successful in the past decade, leading to state-of-the-art techniques for language translation, face recognition and other compelling applications, but these advances have mainly come from experts with specialized knowledge at major technology companies and at universities," said Todd Millstein, professor of computer science and the principal investigator on the research. "Our primary goal with this research is to democratize machine learning, so that programs that utilize it can be written by anyone." Machine learning technologies are powered by probability models.