Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that enables computers to learn from data and experience rather than being explicitly programmed. It involves algorithms that identify patterns in input data and use these patterns to make predictions, decisions, or classifications about new data without human intervention.
For example, Netflix uses machine learning to make recommendations based on patterns it finds in the shows you have watched in the past. If you start watching different types of movies, Netflix changes its recommendations. You didn't have to ask Netflix to make different recommendations; it is constantly "learning" what to recommend based on the new data it receives.
Machine learning involves teaching the computer to "learn" from data rather than giving it explicit instructions. Instead of writing out the steps, you provide the computer with a large amount of data and let it find patterns and make decisions based on that data. These patterns the computer finds for itself are also called algorithms, but in machine learning, the computer creates the algorithm. For instance, if you wanted a program to recognize whether an image contains a cat or a dog, you would feed it thousands of labeled images of cats and dogs. The computer would then learn to identify the features that distinguish cats from dogs.
