After hearing about creating and implementing a model… what is a machine learning model really and how does it actually work?

Question

After hearing about creating and implementing a model… what is a machine learning model really and how does it actually work?

In: Technology

Answer 1

I’m not super well versed in machine learning, but I have a good enough explanation that I feel like I can try and make it understandable.

A machine learning model is kinda like a really big mathematical problem that has a lot of variables. There are input variables, middle variables, and output variables.

The purpose of machine learning is to try to make that model “learn” what inputs lead to the specific outputs.

So, let’s say that you want to train a model to distinguish between oranges and apples. So, what you’d be doing would be giving the model an image of, let’s say, an orange, and telling it that it’s an orange. The model then tries to fine tune the variables in a way that it can be pretty sure that the image is of an orange.

You repeat this with a large number of images of apples and oranges and quiz the model every so often. The goal is to minimize the amount of incorrect guesses so that you can use it to, say, sort fruit into different bins in a factory.