Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Machine learning is an area of artificial intelligence involving developing techniques to allow computers to "learn". More specifically, machine learning is a method for creating computer programs by the analysis of data sets, rather than the intuition of engineers. Machine learning algorithms are organized into a taxonomy, based on the desired outcome of the algorithm. Common algorithm types include: supervised learning --- where the algorithm generates a function that maps inputs to desired outputs. unsupervised learning --- where the algorithm generates a model for a set of inputs. reinforcement learning --- where the algorithm learns a policy of how to act given an observation of the world. learning to learn --- where the algorithm learns its own inductive bias based on previous experience. The analysis of machine learning algorithms is a branch of statistics known as learning theory. Bibliography Mitchell, T. (1997). Machine Learning, McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070428077 This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.