ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Timeline of machine learning

Machine learning is a way of teaching a computer to do something without explicitly telling it what to do. It's like giving the computer a set of instructions that it can learn from, like someone teaching a child. The timeline of machine learning starts in the 1950s when people first started experimenting with using computers to perform tasks. The first big breakthrough was in 1957, when scientists developed a way of teaching computers to learn from their mistakes, something called “reinforcement learning.” This was followed by more successes in the 1960s and 1970s, when scientists developed methods for teaching computers to classify information and recognize patterns. In the 1980s, computers were being used to develop “neural networks,” which are networks of interconnected neurons that behave like the human brain. In the 1990s, machine learning algorithms were used to develop “deep learning” systems, which are systems that can learn from large amounts of data. Today, machine learning is used in many different fields, from self-driving cars to facial recognition technology.