1 Introduction to machine learning
This chapter covers
- An introduction to data, types of datasets, quality, and sources
- Machine learning and types of machine learning algorithms
- An overview of different types of algorithms
There are only patterns, patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns. Patterns hidden by patterns. Patterns within patterns.
There is a saying going around: “Data is the new electricity.” Data is indeed transforming our world, much like electricity has; nobody can deny that. But like electricity, we must remember that data must be properly harnessed to utilize its value. We have to clean the data and analyze and visualize it, and only then can we develop insights from it. The fields of data science, machine learning (ML), and AI are helping us to better harness data and extract trends and patterns so we can make more insightful and balanced decisions in our activities and business.
In this book, we unravel the puzzles of data and see how we can find the patterns hidden within. We will be studying a branch of ML referred to as unsupervised learning. Unsupervised learning solutions are one of the most influential approaches and are changing the face of the industry. They are utilized in banking and finance, retail, insurance, manufacturing, aviation, medical sciences, telecom, and almost every other sector.