Machine Learning Introduction

Ever since computers were invented, we have wondered whether they might be made to learn. If we could understand how to program them to learn-to improve automatically with experience-the impact would be dramatic.

• Imagine computers learning from medical records which treatments are most effective for new diseases
• Houses learning from experience to optimize energy costs based on the particular usage patterns of their occupants.
• Personal software assistants learning the evolving interests of their users in order to highlight especially relevant stories from the online morning newspaper

A successful understanding of how to make computers learn would open up many new uses of computers and new levels of competence and customization

Some successful applications of machine learning

• Learning to recognize spoken words
• Learning to drive an autonomous vehicle
• Learning to classify new astronomical structures
• Learning to play world-class backgammon