Machine Learning

As the phrase of "Machine Learning" goes and as obvious as it is, it refers to the process of teaching a machine to develop the ability to instinctively learn and improve from experiences without human arbitration. The term "Machine Learning" was coined by Arthur Samuel, a leader in this field who defined it as, "Field of study that gives computers the capability to learn without being explicitly programmed." In layman terms, it is the ability of a machine to learn by itself with the help of its personal experiences from the past. A simple example to cite the application of Machine Learning is the prediction of texts while typing. We are often eased when, while typing a text, the machine by itself predicts the next possible word we are going to type. This majorly happens for the most typed phrases on the machine, be it a phone or a computer. The experiences of the machine in the past plays a major role in its learning. The initial step taken by a machine, to begin with, this process is observing the data input or instructions. Consecutively, the machine also learns to look out for patterns in the data and rearrange them in a manner as expected by its user. Machine Learning helps the system to make better decisions in an already experienced field or function.

As is explained above, Machine Learning is the application that offers the system the ability to fundamentally learn and advance sans human intervention. It focuses widely on the allowance of a machine to learn by itself. The aim of this application is to train the machine or system to have a localized history of its exposures, participation, and observations in various fields of functioning.

We use the application of Machine Learning more often than not and most of us are not even aware of how useful and important it is in our daily activities. A few areas where the use of Machine Learning is seen extensively are listed below –

• Virtual Personal Assistants – Siri, Google, and Alexa are now the leading examples of Virtual Personal Assistants. Virtual Personal Assistants can vaguely be described as our personal assistants, who are available on our machines or systems to help us find the desired information and queries in almost no time. Machine Learning plays a part in Virtual Personal Assistants as it actively involves in experiencing and retaining both information and functions performed by it.

• Social Media Relevance – Machine Learning helps different social media applications to help us suggest friends to connect with. It also instantly recognizes the faces of our acquaintances in pictures along with their name identity.

• Improvement of search engine results – Search engine like Google is known to use the application of Machine Learning broadly. Machine Learning lets the search engine improve its prediction in search results through its previous experiences.

• Recommendations of products – Online shopping site uses the application of Machine Learning. It is a common phenomenon while reading about something on the internet, an advertisement of a product that was recently viewed by us pops up on the screen of the system. Therefore, Machine Learning is largely used by online shopping sites to promote their products and recommend them to its customers.

Hence, Machine Learning has already taken the shape of a very integral part of our daily activities. It is because of Machine Learning that we are all, more or less, constantly dependent on our machines to help us with accurate information or data. It has gradually eased us from putting a lot of efforts into operating our machines. Machine Learning has a great contribution to making our lives easier and faster.