What is Machine Learning and why should you take notice?

It seems to the hot topic, or the'in thing' if you would. Machine Learning is taking the technology world by storm, but what is it? In short Machine Learning is a new form of data analysis that uses algorithms which learn from data. The more the data changes, the more the algorithm learns about its behaviours and individual characteristics. It's a new form of analytical model building that helps companies to predict behaviour of data and in turn, relate that to their customers.