Making sense of machine learning 7wData

As Matt Asay observed last week, AI appears to be reaching "peak ludicrous mode," with almost every software vendor laying claim to today's most hyped technology. Hang on -- see what I did there? I used "AI" and "machine learning" interchangeably, which should get me busted by the artificial thought police. The first thing you need to know about AI (and machine learning) is that it's full of confusing, overlapping terminology, not to mention algorithms with functions that are opaque to all but a select few. This combination of hype and nearly impenetrable nomenclature can get pretty irritating.