3 ms·

Good read. It's also refreshing to see a mainstream article that talks about ML without once mentioning 'AI'.

harry8 8y ago
ML is statistics with a different name using a computer, that should always be mentioned in articles for the general public. On the other hand AI is fantasy BS hype boosting off the fact that ML sounds similar to AI to people who aren't aware Machine Learning is stats. Maybe AI one day but today it is utterly ridiculous. No really. Every single article should mention both of those things at least in passing. Downvote away all you AI hype Surfers but you know it's true.
- rocqua 8y ago
  I'd say currently ML is heuristics done by a computer. The rigour of statistics isn't quite present in ML yet. At least, not in the basic courses yet.
  - harry8 8y ago
    You can equally do the thing named statistics without rigour. In fact that describes most of it. Sadly. See replication crisis, p-hacking, garden of forking data etc. etc. etc. I'd say the overwhelming majority of university stats courses have no rigour at all and that may not be a bad thing in and of itself?
- doublekill 8y ago
  ML is different from statistics. If you want to learn more read Breiman's Statistical Modeling: Two cultures. AI is real and is a legit field of study, of which ML is currently very popular, so some articles conflate these two. But it is far from bullshit. If you want to learn more read Artificial Intelligence: A modern approach.
  - harry8 8y ago
    "statistical modelling:" <- 1 discipline "Two cultures" Maybe re-read it? Or read Geoff Hinton, or Wasserman, or Judea Pearl or Hastie & Tibrishani or Murphy on the subject..? AI in a pitch is exactly as much BS as interstellar travel. Definitely go ahead and study all the failed attempts. Norvig wrote the most popular text nearly a quarter of a century ago. It didn't exist then either. There is no going to alpha centuri there is no Hal9000. There is no intelligence that is artificial. Machine Learning exists and is real and is statistical inference done by computer. There is no point where you can look at it and say "Here is the boundary between statistics and ML." Try it. Glorified curve fitting has some fantastic applications and killer demos. Along comes the hype train exactly as you'd expect. Put it on the blockchain or has the hype for that died now? https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612437/what-is-machine-learning-we-drew-you-another-flowchart/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612437/what-is-machine-le... Shallow BS detection, worth doing if only for one's own sanity.

ML is statistics with a different name using a computer, that should always be mentioned in articles for the general public. On the other hand AI is fantasy BS hype boosting off the fact that ML sounds similar to AI to people who aren't aware Machine Learning is stats. Maybe AI one day but today it is utterly ridiculous. No really. Every single article should mention both of those things at least in passing. Downvote away all you AI hype Surfers but you know it's true.

rocqua 8y ago
I'd say currently ML is heuristics done by a computer. The rigour of statistics isn't quite present in ML yet. At least, not in the basic courses yet.
- harry8 8y ago
  You can equally do the thing named statistics without rigour. In fact that describes most of it. Sadly. See replication crisis, p-hacking, garden of forking data etc. etc. etc. I'd say the overwhelming majority of university stats courses have no rigour at all and that may not be a bad thing in and of itself?
doublekill 8y ago
ML is different from statistics. If you want to learn more read Breiman's Statistical Modeling: Two cultures. AI is real and is a legit field of study, of which ML is currently very popular, so some articles conflate these two. But it is far from bullshit. If you want to learn more read Artificial Intelligence: A modern approach.
- harry8 8y ago
  "statistical modelling:" <- 1 discipline "Two cultures" Maybe re-read it? Or read Geoff Hinton, or Wasserman, or Judea Pearl or Hastie & Tibrishani or Murphy on the subject..? AI in a pitch is exactly as much BS as interstellar travel. Definitely go ahead and study all the failed attempts. Norvig wrote the most popular text nearly a quarter of a century ago. It didn't exist then either. There is no going to alpha centuri there is no Hal9000. There is no intelligence that is artificial. Machine Learning exists and is real and is statistical inference done by computer. There is no point where you can look at it and say "Here is the boundary between statistics and ML." Try it. Glorified curve fitting has some fantastic applications and killer demos. Along comes the hype train exactly as you'd expect. Put it on the blockchain or has the hype for that died now? https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612437/what-is-machine-learning-we-drew-you-another-flowchart/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612437/what-is-machine-le... Shallow BS detection, worth doing if only for one's own sanity.