Machine Learning, why is everyone talking about it

Machine learning is not a new term, but in the last few years it has been brought to the spotlight due to technological advances and bets made by major players like Google and Facebook. We have to go back to 1959, and see Arthur Samuel define it for the first time as the "Field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed", but since that it has evolved. Classification: For when you want the algorithm to discriminate and categorize classes on the data available. For example we want it to select from a set of images, the ones who have a computer in it. Regression: In this case it gives us a correlation of outcomes, based on the past experience. In a simple example, if a team always looses when it's raining, the algorithm can show that correlation and the coach can see how can he solve that problem.