AI for People and Business

Appendix A. AI and Machine Learning Algorithms

Even though human-like deductive reasoning, inference, and decision making by a computer is still a long way away, there have been remarkable gains in the development and application of AI techniques and algorithms. We can use these techniques to create incredibly powerful and exciting AI-based solutions to real-world problems.

The algorithms that power AI and machine learning, along with properly selected and prepared training data, are able to create these solutions in ways that are not possible for humans to create any other way. There are many different goals of AI, as discussed in this book, with different techniques used for each.

This appendix is written for anyone interested in learning more about the technical nuts and bolts of AI and machine learning at a high level, including biological neural models that have inspired and helped form the field of AI. Although perhaps more technical than other content in this book, my goal is to present the information in a way that nontechnical folks can understand.

The primary topics of this chapter are how machines learn, biological neurons and neural networks, artificial neural networks, and deep learning. Deep learning is one of the most exciting and promising algorithmic techniques used to build AI solutions; it represents a special type of neural network architecture, which we discuss further in this chapter. First, let’s begin by learning more about how machines learn.

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