Useful things to know about Machine Learning

Learning algorithms are the seeds, data is the soil, and the learned programs are the grown plants. The machine learning expert is like a farmer, sowing the seeds, irrigating and fertilizing the soil, and keeping an eye on the health of the crop but otherwise staying out of the way. Machine learning algorithms are different: they are called learners, they input data and output other algorithms. The algorithms produced by learners are of several types, but the most common ones are called classifiers. They are used to assign a class, or label, to an object having certain numeric or categorical features.