Types of Machine Learning

Machine learning is the branch of Artificial Intelligencethat focuses on developing models

and algorithms that let computers learn from data and improve from previous experience
without being explicitly programmed for every task.In simple words, ML teaches the systems
tothink and understand like humans by learning from the data.
Inthis article, we will explore the various types of machine learning algorithms that are
important for future requirements. Machine learning is generally atraining system to learn
rom past experiences and improve performance over time. Machine learninghelps to
predict massive amounts of data. It helps to deliver fast and accurate results toget profitable
opportunities.

Types of Machine Learning

There are several types of machine learning, each with special characteristics and
applications. Some of the main types of machine learning algorithms are as follows:
1. Supervised Machine Learning
2. Unsupervised Machine Learning
3. Reinforcement Learning
Additionally, there is amore specific category called semi-supervised learning, which
combines elements of both supervised and unsupervised learning.
Typesof Machine Learning
1. Supervised Machine Learning
Supervised learning is defined as when a model gets trained on a "Labelled Dataset".
Labelled datasets have both input and output parameters. In Supervised

Learning algorithms learn to map points between inputs and correct outputs. It has both
training and validation datasets labelled.

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 Supervised Learning
INPUTRRAW DATA Supervisor

Labeled Data

Tralning data set DestredOutput

OUTPUT
Processing
L Elephant

Camel
Labels

Cow
E Elephant
Cow Camcl
Algorthm

Supervised Learning
Let's understand it with the help of an example.
Example: Consider a scenario where you have to build an image classifier to differentiate
between cats and dogs. If you feed the datasets of dogs and cats labelled images to the
algorithm, the machine will learn to classify between a dog or a cat from these labeled
images. When we input new dog or cat images that it has never seen before, it will use the
learned algorithms and predict whether it is a dog or a cat. This is how supervised
learning works,and this is particularly an image classification.
There are two main categories of supervised learning that are mentioned below:
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 Classification
Regression
Classification

Classificationdeals with predicting categorical target variables, which represent discrete

classes or labels. For instance, classifying emails as spam or not spam, or predicting whetner
a patient has a high risk of heart disease. Classification algorithms learn to map the input
features to one of the predefined classes.
Here are some classification algorithms:
Logistic Regression
Support Vector Machine
Random Forest
Decision Tree
K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN
Naive Bayes
Regression
Regression, on the other hand, deals with predicting continuous target variables, which
represent numerical values. For example, predicting the price of a house based on its size,
location, and amenities, or forecasting the sales of a product. Regression algorithms learn to
map the input features to a continuous numerical value.

Here are some regression algorithms:

Linear Regression
Polynomial Regression
Ridge Regression
Lasso Regression
Decision tree
Random Forest
Advantages of Supervised Machine Learning
Supervised Learning models can have high accuracy as they are trained on labelled
data.
The process of decision-making in supervised learning models is often interpetable.

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 lt can often be used in pre-trained models which
saves time and resources when
developing new models from scratch.
Disadvantages of Supervised Machine Learning
lt has limitations in knowing patterns and may
struggle with unseen or unexpected
patterns that are not present in the
training data.
Itcan be time-consuming and costly as it
relies on labeled data only.
It may lead to poor generalizations
based on new data.
Applications of Supervised Learning
Supervised learning is used in a wide variety of
applications, including:
Image classification: Identify objects, faces, and
other features in images.
Natural language processing: Extract information
from text, such as sentiment,
entities, and relationships.
Speech recognition: Convert spoken language into text.
Recommendation systems: Make personalized recommendations to
users.
Predictive analytics: Predict outcomes, such as sales,
customer churn, and stock prices.
Medical diagnosis: Detect diseases and other medical
conditions.
Fraud detection: Identify fraudulent transactions.
Autonomous vehicles: Recognize and respond toobjects in the
environment.
Email spam detection: Classify emails as spam or
not spam.
Quality control in manufacturing: Inspect products for
defects.
Credit scoring: Assess the risk of a borrower defaulting on
a loan.
Gaming: Recognize characters, analyze player behavior, and create NPCs.
Customer support: Automate customer support tasks.
Weather forecasting: Make predictions for temperature,
precipitation, and other
meteorological parameters.
Sports analytics: Analyze player performance, make game predictions, and
optimize
strategies.
2. Unsupervised Machine Learning
Unsupervised Learning Unsupervised learning is a type of machine learning technique in
which an algorithm discovers patterns and relationships using unlabeled data. Unlike
supervised learning, unsupervised learning doesn't involve providing the algorithm with
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 labeled target outputs. The primary goalof Unsupervised learning is often to discover hidden
patterns, similarities, or clusters within the data, which can then be used for various
purposes, such as data exploration, visualization, dimensionality reduction, and more.

Unsupervised Learning
INPUT RAW DATA OUTPUT

Interpretation Algorithm Processing

" Unknown Output

No Training Data Set

MODEL TRAINING

Unsupervised Learning
Let's understand it with the help of an example.
Example: Consider that you have adataset that contains information about the purchases
you made from the shop. Through clustering, the algorithm can group the same purchasing
behavior among you and other customers, which reveals potential customers without
predefined labels. This type of information can help businesses get target customers as well
as identify outliers.
There are two main categories of unsupervised learning that are mentioned below:

Clustering
Association

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 Clustering
Clustering is the process of
technique is useful for grouping data points into clusters based on their similarity. This
labeled examples. identifying patterns and relationships in data without the need for
Here are some
clustering algorithms:
K-Means Clustering algorithm
Mean-shift algorithm
DBSCAN Algorithm
Principal Component Analysis
Independent Component Analysis
Association
Association rule learning is a technique for discovering
dataset. It identifies rules that indicate the relationships between items in a
presence of one item implies the presence of
another item with a specific probability.
Here are some association rule learning
algorithms:
Apriori Algorithm
Eclat
FP-growth Algorithm
Advantages of Unsupervised Machine Learning
It helps to discover hidden patterns and various
relationships between the data.
Used for tasks such as customer segmentation, anomaly
detection, and data
exploration.
It does not require labeled data and reduces the effort of data labeling.
Disadvantages of Unsupervised Machine Learning
Without using labels, it may be difficult to predict the quality of the model's output.
Cluster Interpretability may not be clear and may not have meaningful interpretations.
It has techniques such as autoencoders and dimensionality reduction that can be used to
extract meaningful features from raw data.
Applications of Unsupervised Learning
Here are some common applications of unsupervised learning:
Clustering: Group similar data points into clusters.
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 Anomaly detection: ldentify outliers or anomalies indata.
Dimensionality reduction:, Reduce the dimensionality of data while preserving its
essential information.
Recommendation systems: Suggest products, movies, or content to users based on
their historical behavior or preferences.
Topic modeling: Discover latent topics within a collection of documents.
Density estimation: Estimate the probability density function of data.
Image and video compression: Reduce the amount of storage required for multimedia
Content.

Data preprocessing: Help with data preprocessing tasks such as data cleaning,
imputation of missing values, and data scaling.
Market basket analysis: Discover associations between products.
Genomic data analysis: ldentify patterns or group genes with similar expression
profiles.
Image segmentation: Segment images into meaningful regions.
Community detection in social networks: Identify communities or groups of
individuals with similar interests or connections.
Customer behavior analysis: Uncover patterns and insights for better marketing and
product recommendations.
Content recommendation: Classify and tag content to make it easier to recommend
similar items tO users.

Exploratory data analysis (EDA): Explore data and gain insights before defining
specific tasks.

3. Reinforcement Machine Learning

Reinforcement machine learningalgorithm is a learning method that interacts with the
environment by producing actions and discovering errors. Trial, error, and delay are the
most relevant characteristics of reinforcement learning. In this technique, the model keeps
on increasing its performance using Reward Feedback to learn the behavior or pattern.
These algorithms are specific to a particular problem e.g. Google Self Driving car, AlphaGo
where a bot competes with humans and even itself to get better and better performers.in Go

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 Game. Each time we feed in data, they learn and add the data to their knowledge which is
training data. So, the more it learns the better it gets trained and hence experienced.
Here are some of nmost common reinforcement learning algorithms:
Q-learning: Q-learning is a model-free RL algorithm that learns a Q-function, which
maps states to actions. The Q-function estimates the expected reward of taking a
particular action in agiven state.
SARSA (State-Action-Reward-State-Action):SARSA is another model-free RL
algorithm that learns a Q-function. However, unlike Q-learning, SARSA updates the Q
function for the action that was actually taken, rather than the optimal action.
Deep Q-learning: Deep Q-learning is a combination of Q-learning and deep learning.
Deep Q-learning uses a neural network to represent the Q-function, which allows it to
learn complex relationships between states and actions.

Reward
Agent
Action

Environment

Reinforcement Machine Learning

Let's understand it with the help of examples.
Example: Consider that you are training an Al agent to play a game like chess. The agent
explores different moves and receives positive or negative feedback based on the outcome.
Reinforcement Learning also finds applications in which they learn to perform tasks by
interacting with their surroundings.
Types of Reinforcement Machine Learning

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\

There are two main types of reinforcement learning:

Positive reinforcement
Rewards the agent for taking à desired action.
Encourages the agent to repeat the behavior.
EXamples: Giving a treat to a dog for sitting, providing a point in a game for a cOrreu
answer.

Negative reinforcement
Removes an undesirable stimulus to encourage a desired
behavior.
Discourages the agent from repeating the behavior.
Examples: Turning off a loud buzzer when a lever is pressed, avoiding a penalty
by
completing a task.
Advantages of Reinforcement Machine Learning
It has autonomous decision-making that is well-suited for tasks
and that can learn to
make a sequence of decisions, like robotics and
game-playing.
This technique is preferred to achieve long-term results that are very
difficult to achieve.
It isused to solve a complex problems that cannot be solved by
conventional
techniques.
Disadvantages of Reinforcement Machine Learning
Training Reinforcement Learning agents can be computationally expensive and time
consuming.
Reinforcement learning is not preferable to solving simple problems.
It needsa lot of data and a lot of computation, which makes it impractical and
costly.
Applications of Reinforcement Machine Learníng
Here are some applications of reinforcement learning:
Game Playing: RL can teach agentstoplay games, even complex ones.
Robotics: RL can teach robots to perform tasks autonomously.
Autonomous Vehicles: RL can help self-driving cars navigate and make decisions.
Recommendation Systems: RL can enhance recommendation algorithms by learning
user preferences.
Healthcare: RL can be used to optimize treatment plans and drug discovery.
Natural Language Processing (NLP): RL can be used in dialogue systems and chatbots.
Finance and Trading: RL can be used for algorithmic trading.
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.

SupplyChain and Inventory Management: RL can be used to optimize supply chain

operations.

Energy Management: RL can be used to optimize energy consumption.

Game Al: RL can be used to create more intelligent and adaptive NPCs in video games.
Adaptive Personal Assistants: RL can be used to improve personal assistants.
Virtual Reality (VR)and Augmented Reality (AR): RL can be used to create immersive
and interactive experiences.
Industrial Control: RL can be used to optimize industrial processes.
Education:RL can be used tocreate adaptive learning systems.
Agriculture: RL can be used to optimize agricultural operations.
Semi-Supervised Learning: Supervised +Unsupervised Learning
Semi-Supervised learningis a machine learning algorithm that works between the
Supervised and unsupervised learning so it uses both labelled and unlabelled data, It's
particularly useful when obtaining labeled data is costly, time-consuming, or resource
intensive. This approach is useful when the dataset is expensive and time-consuming. Semi
supervised learning is chosen when labeled data requires skills and relevant resources in
order to train or learn from it.

We use these techniques when we are dealing with data that is a little bit labeled and the rest
large portion of it is unlabeled. We can use the unsupervised techniques to predict labels and
then feed these labels tosupervised techniques. This technique is mostly applicable in the
case of image data sets where usually all images are not labeled.

Input Data

Machine Learning
Model

Prediction

It's an Elephant

PartialLabels

Camel

CoW
Unlabelled Data

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Semi-Supervised Learning
Let's understand it with the help of an example. having labeled
we are building a language translation model,
Example: Consider that
can be resources It allows the models to learn
intensive.
translations for every sentence pair
pairs, making them more accurate. This technique has
from labeled and unlabeled sentence
of machine translation services.
led to significant improvements in the quality
Types of Semi-Supervised Learning Methods
semi-supervised learning methods each with its
oWn
There are a number of different
characteristics, Some of the most common ones include:

Graph-based semi-supervised learning:This approach uses a

graph to represent the
labels trom
relationships between the data points. The graph is then used to propagate
the labeled data points to the unlabeled data points.
from the labeled data
Label propagation: This approach iteratively propagates labels
data points.
points to the unlabeled datapoints, based on the similarities between the
Co-training: This approach trains two different machine learning models
on different
label each other's
subsets of the unlabeled data. The two models are then used to

predictions.
and
Self-training: This approach trains a machine learning model on the labeled data
then retrained
then uses the model to predict labels for the unlabeled data. The model is
on the labeled data and the predicted labels for the unlabeled data.
Generative adversarial networks (GANS): GANS are a type of deep learning algorithm
unlabeled data
that can be used to generate synthetic data. GANS can be used to generate
generator and a
for semi-supervised learning by training two neural networks, a
discriminator.

Advantages of Semi- Supervised Machine Learning

learning, as it takes both
It leads to better generalization as compared tosupervised
labeled and unlabeled data.
Can be applied to a wide range of data.

Disadvantages of Semi- Supervised Machine Learning

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 Semi-supervised methods can be more complex to implement compared to other
approaches.
It stillrequires some labeled datathat might not always be available or easy to obtain.
The unlabeled data can impact the model performance accordingly.
Applications of Semi-Supervised Learning
Here are some common applications of semi-supervised learning:
Image Classification and Object Recognition: Improve the accuracy of models by
combining asmallset of labeled images witha larger set of unlabeled images.
Natural Language Processing (NLP): Enhance the performance of language models and
classifiers by combininga small set of labeled text datawith a vast amount of unlabeled
text.

Speech Recognition: Improve the acuracy of speech recognition by leveraging alimited

amount of transcribed speech data and a more extensive set of unlabeled audio.
Recommendation Systems: Improve the accuracy of personalized recommendations by
supplementing a sparse set of user-item interactions (labeled data) with a wealth of
unlabeled user behavior data.
Healthcare and Medical Imaging: Enhance medical image analysis by utilizing a small
set of labeled medical images alongside a larger set of unlabeled images.

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