"So we've talked a lot in this series about how computers fetch and display data, but how do they make decisions on this data? From spam filters and self-driving cars, to cutting edge medical diagnosis and real-time language translation, there has been an increasing need for our computers to learn from data and apply that knowledge to make predictions and decisions. This is the heart of machine learning which sits inside the more ambitious goal of artificial intelligence. We may be a long way from self-aware computers that think just like us, but with advancements in deep learning and artificial neural networks our computers are becoming more powerful than ever. "

"I don't think, though, that we yet have a settled sense of quite what machine learning means[...]"

"Machine learning focuses on applications that learn from experience and improve their decision-making or predictive accuracy over time."

"In machine learning, computers apply statistical learning techniques to automatically identify patterns in data. These techniques can be used to make highly accurate predictions."

"It has been long understood that learning is a key element of intelligence. This holds both for natural intelligence - we all get smarter by learning - and artificial intelligence."