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Machine Learning 𓆩⚪𓆪｜Definition｜1st｜20251119205401-00-⌔
Machine learning
Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalize to unseen data, and thus perform tasks without being explicitly programmed.1 Advances in the field of deep learning have allowed neural networks, a class of statistical algorithms, to surpass many previous machine learning approaches in performance.
Statistics and mathematical optimisation methods compose the foundations of machine learning. Data mining is a related field of study, focusing on exploratory data analysis (EDA) through unsupervised learning.23
From a theoretical viewpoint, probably approximately correct learning provides a mathematical and statistical framework for describing machine learning. Most traditional machine learning and deep learning algorithms can be described as empirical risk minimisation under this framework.
Printed 2026-06-28.
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Link to original Footnotes
The definition “without being explicitly programmed” is often attributed to Arthur Samuel, who coined the term “machine learning” in 1959, but the phrase is not found verbatim in this publication, and may be a paraphrase that appeared later. Refer to “Paraphrasing Arthur Samuel (1959), the question is: How can computers learn to solve problems without being explicitly programmed?” in Koza, John R.; Bennett, Forrest H.; Andre, David; Keane, Martin A. (1996). “Automated Design of Both the Topology and Sizing of Analog Electrical Circuits Using Genetic Programming”. Artificial Intelligence in Design ‘96. Artificial Intelligence in Design’96. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Netherlands. pp. 151–170. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-0279-4_9. ISBN 978-94-010-6610-5. ↩
Machine learning and pattern recognition “can be viewed as two facets of the same field”.^{[2]}$$^{: vii } ↩
Friedman, Jerome H. (1998). “Data Mining and Statistics: What’s the connection?”. Computing Science and Statistics. 29 (1): 3–9. ↩
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