Introduction to Machine Learning
Definition and Importance of ML:
Machine Learning (ML) is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) focused on building
systems that learn from data to make decisions or predictions without being explicitly
programmed. It has become essential in many industries, from healthcare to finance,
enabling automation and intelligent decision-making.
Types of Machine Learning:
- Supervised Learning: Uses labeled data. Example: Predicting house prices.
- Unsupervised Learning: Uses unlabeled data. Example: Customer segmentation.
- Reinforcement Learning: Learning through trial and error to maximize rewards.
Example: Game playing AI.
Key Algorithms:
- Linear Regression: For continuous value prediction.
- Decision Trees: For classification and regression.
- K-means Clustering: Groups data into clusters.
- Q-learning: A reinforcement learning algorithm for decision making.
Training vs Testing Data:
Training data is used to teach the model, while testing data evaluates its performance.
Proper data splitting ensures unbiased evaluation.
Common Challenges:
- Overfitting: Model learns noise.
- Underfitting: Model too simple.
- Bias-Variance Tradeoff: Balance between model complexity and performance.