Chapter 2 Introduction to Machine Learning
In order to carry out machine learning in R, we will need to familiarise ourselves with some new terminology - please take a look over the details and definitions in the following sections.
Before we begin, we should also make a clear distinction between machine learning and artificial intelligence (which we will look at briefly in Computer Lab 12B). Machine learning is a mechanical, inductive process, and the ‘learning’ that takes place is strictly via the parameters specified by the human(s)3 writing the code - the machine itself does not exercise any independent thought or ‘intelligence’, nor does it question what it is learning, or why.
In contrast, once developed, AI can act (within the parameters defined during its creation) independently.
Please note that some of the following details are slightly simplified.
