Data-Driven Leadership and Careers

Machine learning — Is the emperor wearing clothes?

A behind-the-scenes look at how machine learning works

Machine learning uses patterns in data to label things. Sounds magical? The core concepts are actually embarrassingly simple. I say “embarrassingly” because if someone made you think it’s mystical, they should be embarrassed. Here, let me fix that for you.

The core concepts are embarrassingly simple.

Our thing-labeling example will involve classifying wine as yummy or not-so-yummy and we’ll keep all the ideas simple enough to enjoy alongside a glass of wine… or three. If wine is not your cup of tea, here’s an alcohol-free version of the same text.

How does it work?

ML’s not magic — it’s impossible to learn without data, so I’ll have to taste some wine. If you must know, this one got a N label, N for nope-let’s-not-try-this-again . And I got it all over myself. The things we do for science.

Data

To learn, you need something to learn from. Let’s imagine I tasted 50 wines (for science!) and visualized their info for your viewing pleasure below. Each wine has an age in years and a review score, plus the correct answers we’re trying to learn: Y for yummy and N for not-so-yummy.