Book Image

Machine Learning with R - Third Edition

By : Brett Lantz
Book Image

Machine Learning with R - Third Edition

By: Brett Lantz

Overview of this book

Machine learning, at its core, is concerned with transforming data into actionable knowledge. R offers a powerful set of machine learning methods to quickly and easily gain insight from your data. Machine Learning with R, Third Edition provides a hands-on, readable guide to applying machine learning to real-world problems. Whether you are an experienced R user or new to the language, Brett Lantz teaches you everything you need to uncover key insights, make new predictions, and visualize your findings. This new 3rd edition updates the classic R data science book to R 3.6 with newer and better libraries, advice on ethical and bias issues in machine learning, and an introduction to deep learning. Find powerful new insights in your data; discover machine learning with R.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Machine Learning with R - Third Edition
Contributors
Preface
Other Books You May Enjoy
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Index

Understanding Naive Bayes


The basic statistical ideas necessary to understand the Naive Bayes algorithm have existed for centuries. The technique descended from the work of the 18th century mathematician Thomas Bayes, who developed foundational principles for describing the probability of events and how probabilities should be revised in light of additional information. These principles formed the foundation for what are now known as Bayesian methods.

We will cover these methods in greater detail later on. For now, it suffices to say that a probability is a number between zero and one (that is, from zero to 100 percent), which captures the chance that an event will occur in light of the available evidence. The lower the probability, the less likely the event is to occur. A probability of zero indicates that the event will definitely not occur, while a probability of one indicates that the event will occur with absolute certainty.

Classifiers based on Bayesian methods utilize training data...