Why is it so difficult for you to accept my orders if you're just a machine? Just a machine? That's like saying that you are just an ape. This is a short dialog between the leading actor and a robot, taken from the movie Automata. In this movie, the robots have two unalterable protocols; the first obliges them to preserve human life and the second limits them from repairing themselves. Why should humans limit the ability of robots to repair themselves? Because robots have a great capacity for self-learning that could lead them to take control of humans, over time maybe.

At least that is what happens in the movie.

But what do we really mean by self-learning? A machine has the ability to learn if it is able to improve its performance through its activities. Therefore, this ability can be used to help humans solve specific problems such as extracting knowledge from large amounts of data. In this chapter, we will be introduced to the basic concepts of machine learning, and then we will take a tour of the different types of algorithm. In addition, an introduction, some background information, and a basic knowledge of the MATLAB environment will be covered. Finally, we will explore the essential tools that MATLAB provides for understanding the amazing world of machine learning.In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

At the end of the chapter, you will be able to recognize the different machine learning algorithms and the tools that MATLAB provides to handle them.