How Do Machines Learn To Make Predictions?

The craze behind machine learning is fueled by its ability to make predictions that come handy in running a business. This post tries to provide an intuitive understanding of how machines learn to spit out probabilities. Suppose you run a bubble tea shop, and want to create a machine learning model to predict if customers will like pieces of mock coconut in their bubble tea. Step #1: One day you make a note of all the customers who ordered mock coconut pieces, and whether they liked it or not (by rummaging through the garbage can later and checking how many of them actually finished all those white little cubes of industrial waste). This allows you to make a chart like the one below, where 0 represents the customer didn't like the mock coconut pieces, and 1 they really liked it.