Practical Machine Learning: Real World Projects 2021(Python)

Here’s a basic definition of machine learning:

“Algorithms that parse data, learn from that data, and then apply what they’ve learned to make informed decisions”

An easy example of a machine learning algorithm is an on-demand music streaming service. For the service to make a decision about which new songs or artists to recommend to a listener, machine learning algorithms associate the listener’s preferences with other listeners who have a similar musical taste. This technique, which is often simply touted as AI, is used in many services that offer automated recommendations.

Machine learning fuels all sorts of automated tasks that span across multiple industries, from data security firms that hunt down malware to finance professionals who want alerts for favorable trades. The AI algorithms are programmed to constantly be learning in a way that simulates as a virtual personal assistant—something that they do quite well.

Machine learning involves a lot of complex math and coding that, at the end of the day, serves a mechanical function the same way a flashlight, a car, or a computer screen does. When we say something is capable of “machine learning”, it means it’s something that performs a function with the data given to it and gets progressively better over time. It's like if you had a flashlight that turned on whenever you said “it's dark,” so it would recognize different phrases containing the word "dark."

Now, the way machines can learn new tricks gets really interesting (and exciting) when we start talking about deep learning and deep neural networks.