Make: Volume 77

gives us a great definition of machine learning:

“With traditional programming, you explicitly

tell a computer what it needs to do using code,

but with machine learning the computer finds

its own solution to a problem based on examples

you show it.” In practice, this means collecting

data or finding a pre-built dataset to train a

mathematical model, much like training a child to

recognize the difference between a dog and a cat

from various photos.

The trained model should make successful

predictions or classifications when presented

with unseen data, in a process called inference.

This process is similar to showing the child a new

photo of ...