Machine learning is teaching computers to learn from data instead of explicitly programming every rule.

The Simple Explanation

Traditional programming: You tell the computer exactly what to do.
Machine learning: You show the computer examples, and it figures out the patterns.

Real Example

Email spam filter:

Traditional approach: Write rules like "if email contains 'FREE MONEY' → spam"

ML approach: Show the system 10,000 emails labeled spam/not spam. It learns patterns you never thought of.

How It Works (3 Steps)

1. Feed data: Give the computer thousands of examples with answers (labeled data).

2. Find patterns: Algorithm identifies relationships and patterns in that data.

3. Make predictions: Use those patterns to predict outcomes on new, unseen data.

Common Use Cases

• Recommendation systems (Netflix, Amazon)
• Image recognition (face detection, medical scans)
• Voice assistants (Siri, Alexa)
• Fraud detection (credit cards)
• Price prediction (stocks, real estate)

The Key Insight

ML doesn't need you to understand the problem perfectly. It discovers patterns humans might miss. That's why it's powerful for complex problems.