1. Introduction of machine learning

Abstract

Machine learning is an area of artificial intelligence concerned with the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience. In practice, this involves creating programs that optimize a performance criterion through the analysis of data. Machine learning can be viewed as an attempt to automate “doing science”. For introductory texts, see Langley (1996), Mitchell (1997) and Alpaydin (2004). Mitchell has long been considered the “bible”, but is now slightly dated. For introductory books on computational learning theory (which emphasizes the ‘probably approximately correct’ model of learning (Valiant 1984)), see Anthony and Biggs (1992) and Kearns and Vazirani (1994).