Machine Learning (ML)

Friendly Description: Machine Learning is when a computer learns by example instead of by being given strict rules. Rather than telling it, "If this, then that," you show it many examples and let it figure out the pattern on its own. It's like teaching a child to recognize cats by showing them lots of cats, instead of trying to write down every rule for cat-ness.

Example: Your music app's recommendation feature uses machine learning. Nobody hand-coded "if Matt listens to country, suggest more country." Instead, the system noticed which songs people who like the same things you do also enjoyed, and learned from those patterns to suggest songs you'll probably love too.