1 Machine Learning and Graph: An introduction
This chapter covers:
- An introduction to machine learning
- An introduction to graphs
- The role of graphs in machine learning applications
Machine Learning is a large branch in the Artificial Intelligence field. It was born in 1959, when Arthur Samuel, an IBM computer scientist, wrote the first computer program to play checkers [Samuel, 1959]. He had a clear idea in mind:
“Programming computers to learn from experience should eventually eliminate the need for much of this detailed programming effort.”
He wrote the first program by assigning a score to each board position based on a fixed formula. It worked quite well, but in a second approach he had the program execute thousands of games against itself and used the results to refine the board scoring. Eventually the program reached the proficiency of a human player and Machine Learning took its first steps.
Machine Learning is the field of study in computer science that allows computer programs to learn from data.