Putting machine learning into context – CSC Blogs

Machine Learning is getting a lot more air time these days but are we actually sure what it is? It gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed" (Arthur Samuel, 1959). This is an old quote but it has held the test of time. But,how can computers "learn" – have we really reached the age of artificial intelligence where they will take over the world and make humans redundant? Let's explore the core of the definition: the ability to learn What this really means is there are a set of algorithms that, rather than simply following a static set of program instructions, they can make data driven predictions, or decisions through building a model. Supervised learning – The computer is presented with example inputs (training data) and their desired outputs, given by a "teacher", and the goal is to learn a general rule that maps inputs to outputs. The "easiest" example of supervised learning is a decision tree – this uses a tree-like graph or model of decisions and ...