Applied Machine Learning and AI for Engineers

Preface

I have witnessed three great technical revolutions in my lifetime: first the personal computer, then the internet, and lastly the smartphone. Machine learning (ML) and AI are just as fundamentally important as all three and will have an equally profound impact on our lives.

I first became interested in machine learning the day my credit card company called to confirm that I was trying to purchase a $700 necklace. I was not, but I was curious: how did they know it wasn’t me? I use my card all over the world, and for the record, I do buy my wife nice things from time to time. Not once had the credit card company declined a legitimate purchase, but several times they had correctly flagged fraudulent purchases, the one prior to this being an attempt by someone in Brazil to use my card to buy an airline ticket. This time was different: the jewelry store was 2 miles from my house. I tried to imagine an algorithm that could so reliably detect credit card fraud at the point of sale. It didn’t take long to realize that something more powerful than a mere algorithm was at work.

It turned out that the credit card company runs every transaction through a sophisticated machine learning model that is incredibly adept at detecting fraud. That moment changed my life. It’s a splendid example of how ML and AI are making the world a better place. Moreover, understanding how ML could analyze credit card transactions in real time and pick out the bad ones while allowing legitimate charges ...