A Primer on Supervised Learning: An Introduction to Machine Learning Techniques
Introduction
Machine Learning is one of the most exciting fields in computer science for a reason: it’s constantly evolving and finding new applications. This makes it hard to explain what Machine Learning is, but easy to show why everyone should care about it. So let me start out by saying this: machine learning (ML) can take data from anywhere, learn from them, and make predictions based on what it’s seen before. It does this without being told explicitly how to do so by humans. Of course, just because something can be done doesn’t mean that we’ll all have flying cars tomorrow – but this is still an incredible process that we’ve only scratched the surface of understanding
Supervised learning is the most common form of machine learning.
Supervised learning is the most common form of machine learning. It involves training an algorithm with known data, so that it can be used to predict future events or make decisions on new data. Supervised learning can be used to:
- Classify objects into categories (for example, identifying whether an email is spam or not)
- Predict values for continuous variables (for example, predicting how much money you will have in your bank account at the end of next month)
- Recognize patterns in unstructured data (such as images or audio).
Unsupervised learning is a way of exploring data without a known output.
Unsupervised learning is a way of exploring data without a known output. Unsupervised learning can be used to find patterns in data, hidden structures in data and clusters in data.
Unsupervised Learning Techniques:
- K-means clustering – This algorithm groups similar observations together into clusters (groups). The number of clusters is determined by the user to fit their needs. This algorithm is simple but has some limitations such as finding outliers within each cluster which could distort your results if not accounted for properly during analysis!
- Principal Component Analysis (PCA) – PCA finds linear combinations of variables that explain most of the variance in your dataset while being uncorrelated with each other (the principal components). It will usually result in several principal components with high eigenvalues (> 0), which are called ‘principal axes’. We’ll discuss these next…
Reinforcement learning involves an agent that learns through trial and error.
Reinforcement learning is an active area of research in machine learning. It involves an agent that learns through trial and error. Unlike supervised learning, where you tell the system what to do and how to do it, reinforcement learning involves an agent that learns from experience (a process known as experiential learning).
In a simple example of reinforcement learning, let’s say you have a robot trying to learn how to walk: each time it takes a step forward or backward, its progress is rewarded with positive feedback; when it falls over or tries something else instead of walking forward or backward–say walking sideways–it receives negative feedback from falling onto its backside! You can see how this might train up your average toddler pretty quickly!
Supervised Learning (ML) is probably the most common type of Machine Learning.
Supervised learning is probably the most common type of machine learning, and it’s used when there is a known output. That means that you have training data–a set of inputs and their corresponding outputs (or labels). For example, if you want to train a model to predict whether someone has diabetes or not, your input would be their age, weight and medical history; while the labels would be “yes” or “no.” You don’t need all three variables at once: each one provides valuable information about whether someone has diabetes or not.
When using supervised learning techniques on large amounts of data with many dimensions (features), it becomes very hard for humans to understand what patterns may exist within this dataset. This can make it difficult for us humans to figure out how best use those patterns when making predictions about new data points!
It’s also the easiest to explain – because it’s similar to how we learn things in real life!
Supervised learning is also the easiest to explain – because it’s similar to how we learn things in real life!
We all use inductive reasoning every day. You probably know what a dog looks like, for example, but you’ve never seen one with exactly those characteristics before. If someone were to show you a picture of a dog and ask whether it was a Labrador retriever or not, your answer would be based on generalizing from prior experience (and probably some common sense). You’ve seen many dogs before – some of them were Labradors; therefore all dogs must be Labradors…right?
This type of reasoning is called induction: drawing conclusions about new situations based on previous knowledge and experiences with similar ones. Supervised learning algorithms use this same logic when they’re trying to make predictions about something new based on existing data sets containing known answers (labels).
Supervised learning is one of many different types of machine learning
Supervised learning is one of many different types of machine learning. It’s the most common form, though, and it’s similar to how we learn things in real life.
Supervised learning involves training a model with labeled data so that it can predict output values for new data points based on what has been learned from previous examples. This type of method works best when you have labeled data available and want your algorithm to learn relationships between variables (x) and their corresponding response value(y).
Conclusion
Supervised learning is one of the most common types of machine learning and is also the easiest to explain. It’s similar to how we learn things in real life!