Over the past two decades Machine Learning has become one of the mainstays

of information technology and with that, a rather central, albeit usually

hidden, part of our life. With the ever increasing amounts of data becoming

available there is good reason to believe that smart data analysis will become

even more pervasive as a necessary ingredient for technological progress.

Machine learning, a subfield of artificial intelligence ”is concerned with the question of how to
construct computer programs that automatically improve with experience” (Mitchell, (1997)). In a
very broad sense ”things learn when they change their behavior in a way that makes them
perform better in a future” (Frank, Witten, (2003)). Machine learning is thus not only related to
learning from data. We can distinguish two basic learning activities: knowledge acquisition and
skill refinement. Knowledge acquisition consists of inferring and assimilating new material,
composed of concepts, general laws, procedures, etc. The knowledge acquired should allow
problem solving, performing new tasks, or improving the performance of existing tasks, explaining
situations, predicting behavior, etc. Refinement of skills through practice consists of gradually
correcting deviations between observed and desired behavior through repeated practice. This
activity of human learning covers mental, motor, and sensory processes. It should be noted that
current research in machine learning mainly focuses on knowledge acquisition.

Un programa de ordenador APRENDE a partir de una experiencia E a realizar una tarea T (de
acuerdo con una medida de rendimiento P), si su rendimiento al realizar T, medido con P, mejora
gracias a la experiencia E” [Mitchell, 97]

La altamente compleja naturaleza de muchos problemas de la vida real, comúnmente

significa que inventar algoritmos especializados que los resolverían perfectamente
todo el tiempo, no es práctico y hasta imposible. Algunos ejemplos de problemas en el
aprendizaje de máquina incluyen, “¿Esto es cáncer?”, “¿Cuál es el valor de mercado de
esta casa?”, “¿Cuál de estas personas son buenos amigos?”, “¿Explotará este motor de
cohete en el despegue?”, “¿Le gustará esta película a esta persona?”, “¿Quién es
él/ella?”, “¿Qué dijiste?”, y “¿Cómo se vuela esto?”. Todos estos problemas son un
excelente foco para un proyecto AM, y de hecho, AM ha sido aplicado a cada uno con
gran éxito.