Machine Power

..what is machine learning, exactly? Stanford University computer science professor Andrew Ng defines it as “the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed.” In fundamental terms, machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that is meant to replicate the way humans take in information from their environment to make better-informed choices for the future*. But realistically, will machine learning transform the way businesses are managed?

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It was a regular work day—I had entered my office premises, showed my face to the small screen on the attendance system and it marked my attendance. Once inside my cabin, I was reflecting on what just happened and I realized that face recognition and other forms of biometric solutions, including fingerprint scanning and retina scanning, have been indeed a part of a larger wave called Artificial Intelligence (AI) which began a few decades ago but seem to have gradually entered our daily lives. Household robots, robotic arms in automobile factories and hazardous environments, recommendation engines used in websites and searches on net, and self driving cars are but some examples of how AI is penetrating our lives.

What is AI and machine learning

AI, which traces its roots to research done by scientists for over a century, has been explored in many different ways—though not always successfully. Mimicking physical tasks done by humans (robotics), replicating [the functions of] sense organs (motion sensing, face recognition, etc.), cognition, rule-based decision-making, solving puzzles,playing games (IBM’s Deep Blue against Gary Kasparov), replicating practices of experts in various domains (expert systems) are examples of approaches taken towards understanding AI and developing new applications for it.