Machine learning is the branch of Artificial Intelligence that 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 to think and
understand like humans by learning from the data.

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. Semi-Supervised Machine Learning
4. Reinforcement 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.
Supervised Learning algorithms learn to map points between inputs and
correct outputs. It has both training and validation datasets labelled.

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 labelled 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:

• Classification
• Regression

Classification
Classification deals with predicting categorical target variables, which
represent discrete classes or labels. For instance, classifying emails as spam
or not spam, or predicting whether 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
interpretable.
• It can often be used in pre-trained models which saves time and
resources when developing new models from scratch.

Disadvantages of Supervised Machine Learning

• It has limitations in knowing patterns and may struggle with unseen or

unexpected patterns that are not present in the training data.
• It can be time-consuming and costly as it relies on labelled 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 to objects 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 behaviour, 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 is a type of machine learning technique in which an
algorithm discovers patterns and relationships using unlabelled data. Unlike
supervised learning, unsupervised learning doesn’t involve providing the
algorithm with labelled target outputs. The primary goal of 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.

Example: Consider that you have a dataset that contains information about
the purchases you made from the shop. Through clustering, the algorithm can
group the same purchasing behaviour 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

Clustering
Clustering is the process of grouping data points into clusters based on their
similarity. This technique is useful for identifying patterns and relationships in
data without the need for labelled examples.

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 relationships between
items in a dataset. It identifies rules that indicate the 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 labelled data and reduces the effort of data labelling.

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.

Applications of Unsupervised Learning

Here are some common applications of unsupervised learning:

• Clustering: Group similar data points into clusters.

• Anomaly detection: Identify outliers or anomalies in data.
• Dimensionality reduction: Reduce the dimensionality of data while
preserving its essential information.
• Image and video compression: Reduce the amount of storage
required for multimedia content.
 • Data pre-processing: Help with data pre-processing tasks such as
data cleaning, imputation of missing values, and data scaling.
• Genomic data analysis: Identify patterns or group genes with similar
expression profiles.
• Image segmentation: Segment images into meaningful regions.
• Customer behaviour analysis: Uncover patterns and insights for
better marketing and product recommendations.

3. Semi-Supervised Learning
Semi-Supervised learning is 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 labelled data is costly,
time-consuming, or resource-intensive.

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

Example: Consider that we are building a language translation model, having

labelled translations for every sentence pair can be resource-intensive. Semi-
supervised learning technique allows the models to learn from labelled and
unlabelled sentence pairs, making them more accurate.

Types of Semi-Supervised Learning Methods

There are a number of different semi-supervised learning methods each with
its own characteristics. Some of the most common ones include:
 • Graph-based semi-supervised learning
• Label propagation
• Co-training
• Self-training
• Generative adversarial networks (GANs)

Advantages of Semi- Supervised Machine Learning

• It leads to better generalization as compared to supervised

learning, as it takes both labelled and unlabelled data.
• Can be applied to a wide range of data.

Disadvantages of Semi- Supervised Machine Learning

• Semi-supervised methods can be more complex to implement

compared to other approaches.
• It still requires some labelled data that might not be always available or
easy to obtain.
• The unlabelled 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 a small set of labelled images with a larger set
of unlabelled images.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP): Enhance the performance of
language models and classifiers by combining a small set of labelled
text data with a vast amount of unlabelled text.
• Speech Recognition: Improve the accuracy of speech recognition by
leveraging a limited amount of transcribed speech data and a more
extensive set of unlabelled audio.
• Recommendation Systems: Improve the accuracy of personalized
recommendations by supplementing a sparse set of user-item
interactions (labelled data) with a wealth of unlabelled user behaviour
data.
• Healthcare and Medical Imaging: Enhance medical image analysis by
utilizing a small set of labelled medical images alongside a larger set of
unlabelled images.
4. Reinforcement Machine Learning
Reinforcement machine learning algorithm 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 behaviour 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 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.

Example: Consider that you are training an AI agent to play a game like
chess. The agent explores different moves and receives positive or negative
feedback based on the outcome.

Types of Reinforcement Machine Learning

There are two main types of reinforcement learning:

Positive reinforcement

• Rewards the agent for taking a desired action.

• Encourages the agent to repeat the behaviour.
• Examples: Giving a treat to a dog for sitting, providing a point in a game
for a correct answer.

Negative reinforcement

• Removes an undesirable stimulus to encourage a desired behaviour.

 • Discourages the agent from repeating the behaviour.
• 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 is used to solve 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 in solving simple problems.
• It needs a lot of data and a lot of computation, which makes it
impractical and costly.

Applications of Reinforcement Machine Learning

Here are some applications of reinforcement learning:

• Game Playing: RL can teach agents to play 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.
• Supply Chain and Inventory Management: RL can be used to
optimize supply chain operations.
• Energy Management: RL can be used to optimize energy consumption.
 • Game AI: 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 to create adaptive learning systems.
• Agriculture: RL can be used to optimize agricultural operations.

Supervised vs. Unsupervised Machine Learning

Supervised machine Unsupervised machine

Parameters
learning learning

Algorithms are used

Algorithms are trained
Input Data against data that is not
using labelled data.
labelled

Computational
Simpler method Computationally complex
Complexity

Accuracy Highly accurate Less accurate

No. of classes No. of classes is known No. of classes is not known

Uses real-time analysis of

Data Analysis Uses offline analysis
data

Linear and Logistics

regression, Random
K-Means clustering,
Algorithms used forest, Support Vector
Hierarchical clustering, etc.
Machine, Neural Network,
etc.
 Supervised machine Unsupervised machine
Parameters
learning learning

Desired output is not

Output Desired output is given.
given.

Uses training data to infer

Training data No training data is used.
model.

It is not possible to learn It is possible to learn larger

larger and more complex and more complex models
Complex model
models with supervised with unsupervised
learning. learning.

Model We can test our model. We can not test our model.

Supervised learning is also Unsupervised learning is

Also called as
called classification. also called clustering.

Example: Optical character Example: Find a face in an

Example
recognition. image.