Chapter 10. Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning

Predictive analytics and machine learning are hot, new research fields. They are new compared to other fields and, without a doubt, we can expect a lot of rapid growth. It is even predicted that machine learning will accelerate so fast that within mere decades human labor will be replaced by intelligent machines (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity). The current state of art is far from that utopia. A lot of computing power and data is still needed to make even simple decisions, such as determining whether pictures on the Internet contain dogs or cats. Predictive analytics uses a variety of techniques, including machine learning to make useful predictions, for instance, to determine whether a customer can repay his or her loans or identify female customers who are pregnant (see http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/).

To...