This is a field that is getting a lot of attention lately with the likes of IBM Watson winning Jeopardy and Googles Alpha Go beating Lee Sedol GO champion. This has led me to want to find out more about the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Some of you may be surprised to learn that machine learning, big data and the other terms that go with it are all just calculus or if you prefer statistics. It is applied in a very clever manner that means a computer can be transformed with enough data into an intelligent (albeit not Einstein intelligent) entity that can predict a wide range of behaviours, such as what a price of a house may be worth to what I might like to watch next on Netflix.

This is an emerging and exciting field and as the cost of computing continues to drop we are going to see this becoming ever more present in the web sites we visit, to interacting with the internet of things, such as toaster trying to take over the world… or lights that know when to turn them selves off.

This blog series will concentrate on the foundations of machine learning, assuming no knowledge (as that is where I am starting) and delving into the what machines can do for you.