Machine learning — the new Holy Grail

Machine learning (eventually leading to artificial intelligence) is the current buzzword that's thrown around a lot in the automation sphere. It promises a lot, but what can it actually do for testing?  

Well, theoretically, it can take over the job of a tester by learning how a system works and then using its knowledge to search through the system for known bugs. It sounds amazing (or scary depending upon your point of view), and it is also a bit of a nebulous statement; there are hundreds of different things that testers look at. 

Now this all sounds like doom and gloom: the machine learning apocalypse is coming and all of us testers will soon be obsolete. Well, I don't think that is true. Machine learning systems need to be taught how to do things. If they are not properly trained, they...