Can machines learn? - UCL Educate

Machine learning (ML) is a data-processing exercise and a sub-field of artificial intelligence (AI). The term refers to the construction of the software that enables machines to learn'through experience' using algorithms. It processes sets of observations – or data records – and infers new patterns or rules arising from these. When the data is changed, the ML algorithm spots this and learns, so it can produce or predict a new result. ML was used to detect spamming in the early 2000s, when the volume of spam threatened the effective use of email.