What is machine learning?
Machine learning is not a new subject; it has existed in academia for well over 70 years as a formal discipline, but known by different names: statistics, and more generally mathematics, then artificial intelligence (AI), and today as machine learning. While the other related subject areas of statistics and AI are just as prevalent, machine learning has carved out a separate niche and become an independent discipline in and of itself.
In simple terms, machine learning involves predicting future events based on historical data. We see it manifested in our day-to-day lives and indeed we employ, knowingly or otherwise, principles of machine learning on a daily basis.
When we casually comment on whether a movie will succeed at the box office using our understanding of the popularity of the individuals in the lead roles, we are applying machine learning, albeit subconsciously. Our understanding of the characters in the lead roles has been shaped over years of watching...
