An Introduction to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

It is not always clear to people, especially if they are new to the subject, what we mean by machine learning and when and why we need it. A lot of people are aware of artificial intelligence (AI) from science fiction but they may not really understand the reality and the connection to machine learning. This chapter will explain in clear lay terms what machine learning and AI are, and it will also introduce the three major forms of machine learning: supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning. The aim is that after reading this chapter you will understand what, exactly, machine learning is and why we need it.