Machine learning is popular in today’s technology and is a quickly growing field. Many people today are benefiting from machine learning without even realizing it. Whenever someone uses Google Maps, or Amazon’s Alexa, they are benefiting from machine learning.
What is Machine Learning?
Machine learning is an application of artificial intelligence. Machine learning uses mathematical models to find patterns in large amounts of data using algorithms and statistics. The data can be numbers, words, or pictures. By applying algorithms to processed data, machine learning software “learns” from it by looking for patterns from which it can make predictions. Using a set of rules, machine learning algorithms can figure out what the general characteristics of the data are, and then “learns” how to apply these characteristics to similar data. Now, when the computer is given new information, it will be able to correctly predict the label for the new data based on its previous experience with similar data.
There are a variety of ways to apply machine learning, from self-driving cars to detecting fraud online. In this article, we’ll be looking at some ways machine learning is being applied in day-to-day life.
Image Recognition
One of the most common applications of machine learning is when it’s used for image recognition technology. This application is used to identify people, places, and things. One application is on social media with automatic friend tagging suggestions. Facebook uses this feature, and it is machine learning that allows the social media giant to automatically suggest who to tag in a photo someone just uploaded.
Speech Recognition
Known also as “speech to text”, speech recognition is what happens when someone speaks instructions to a computer program and that program then translates what it heard into written text. Speech recognition is also used in devices like Amazon’s Alexa, which can follow basic instructions, and Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri.
Traffic Prediction
Traveling safely from one place to another is made easier with machine learning. Google maps are using machine learning to help people avoid traffic by predicting traffic conditions using the real-time location of the vehicle. They do this by using data gathered from the Google maps app. They also use the average time it’s taken to drive the route in the past to predict where traffic will be heaviest at specific times.
Product Recommendations
Whenever we buy a product online or select a show to stream on a streaming service like Netflix, there will be a list of recommended products or videos for us. Or perhaps an ad for something similar will pop up as we continue to browse the internet. Google is using machine learning algorithms to show ads that are tailored to its users by understanding user interest.
Self-Driving Cars
Self-driving cars wouldn’t be able to exist without machine learning. Machine learning algorithms use the data collected from the car's cameras and other sensors. Then, the algorithms interpret this data and then decide what action to take. Machine learning is so effective in self-driving cars, that the cars can perform maneuvers as well as, or even better than people.
Email Spam and Malware Filtering
One of the plagues of the internet age is spam email and dangerous malware. Some of the machine learning algorithms used by Gmail are called Multi-layer Perceptions, Decision Tree and Naïve Bayes Classifier. They help sort through what emails are important and what emails are spam or worse by filtering through the content and headers of the emails.
Virtual Personal Assistant
This application of machine learning algorithms allows us more ease and productivity. Using voice commands, virtual personal assistants like Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, HP’s Cortana, and Apple’s Siri can follow simple instructions like “play music”, “schedule appointment on the calendar” or “call Bob”.
Online Fraud Detection
Fraud is another big issue in the internet age. Consumers lost 56 billion dollars to identity fraud in 2020. Machine learning compares the data gathered from legitimate transactions, which allows the computer to detect changes in the pattern that might mean a fraudulent transaction is taking place.
Stock Market Trading
Long short term memory neural networks are used to help predict the ups and downs of the stock market. LSTM neural networks can store past information about stock prices, which is important to predicting the future price of a stock.
Medical Diagnosis
Machine learning is being used in the medical field to diagnose diseases. While these programs can’t substitute a doctor’s care after the fact, some programs can predict whether or not a patient will develop cancer in the years to come. For example, with breast cancer, machine learning software is fed tens of thousands of mammograms, which allows it to spot patterns and predict which patients might develop cancer in the future.
Encora Knows Machine Learning
Are you interested in using machine learning to grow your business? Even if you’re not sure how machine learning can help your business, we here at Encora can help develop a plan for applying machine learning to help you succeed! Reach out to us today and let’s talk about helping your business grow by applying machine learning to increase productivity and efficiency.
