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Wednesday, December 6, 2017

What the heck is machine learning, and why is it everywhere these days?

Luke DormehlDigital Trends
Originally published November 18, 2017

Here is an excerpt:

Which programming languages to machine learners use?

Like the question above, there’s no one answer to this. Machine learning is a big field and, with so much ground to cover, there’s no one language that does absolutely everything.

Due to its simplicity, and the availability of deep learning libraries such as TensorFlow and PyTorch, Python is currently the number one language. If you’re thinking about delving into machine learning for the first time, it’s also one of the most accessible languages — and there are loads of online resources available.

Java is a good option, too, and comes with a great community of its own, while C++ and R are also worth checking out.

Is machine learning the perfect solution to all our AI problems?

You can probably guess where we’re going with this. No, machine learning isn’t infallible. Algorithms can still be subject to human biases, and the rule of “garbage in, garbage out” holds as true here as it does to any other data-driven field.

There are also questions about transparency, particularly when you’re dealing with the kind of “black boxes” that are an essential part of neural networks.

But as a tool that’s helping to revolutionize technology as we know it, and making AI available to the masses? You bet that it’s a great tool!