Different Modes (Types) of Machine Learning Explained in Plain English
With graphical visualizations
What is machine learning?
Machine Learning (ML) is the ability of computers to learn from data without being explicitly programmed.
ML is all about data-driven programming, which is something different from traditional programming. With ML, computers can make important decisions based on data.
Unlike traditional programming in which the programmer intentionally defines rules of how the program should work on a computer, an ML model learns the rules from data itself. ML is a part of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Different modes (types) of ML solve different types of problems. So, we need to build the right type of ML model depending on the task that we want to perform. Some tasks require a combination of multiple types of ML.
There are mainly three modes of machine learning:
- Supervised Learning
- Unsupervised Learning
- Reinforcement Learning
Let’s discuss each type in detail.
