What exactly is machine learning and how does it work?
In: Technology
Machine learning is just a bunch of math that figures out how to get from some input to some output.
For for example, you’ve got an equation 2+5=7. Now, let’s say you don’t know which number you need to add to 2 to get to 7. So you have an equation 2 + X = 7, where “X” is that unknown number.
Machine learning is just running a bunch of mathematical algorithms to figure out what “X” is. If I have a number 2, what do I need to do to it to reach number 7?
So, say you have a bunch of pictures of cats, and a bunch of pictures of churches. You want your computer to be able to recognize which are cats, and which are churches.
A picture is nothing more than a collection of colored pixels arranged in a specific pattern. Those are your inputs. That’s your “2” in the above example. The answer “it’s a cat” or “it’s a church” is your “7”, the output of a machine learning algorithm. And X is something that connects a bunch of pictures to the answer “it’s a cat”.
Machine learning is the computer calculating what “X” needs to be in order to get from the input “2” to the input “7”.
So, in machine learning (one common type at least), you give your computer a bunch of pictures, and you tell the computer which are cats, and which are churches. Then, the computer runs some math and finds some sort of pattern that’s unique to cats vs. churches, so later, it can recognize them. That’s basically you teaching the computer how to discern a cat from a church.
In essence, the computer figures out what “X” is, so later, when you give it a random picture, it can solve the equation ‘picture’ + X = answer
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