Nowadays Machine Learning (ML) is one of the most important areas of artificial intelligence ( AI). It is a field that enables computer programs to learn from data without being overtly programmed by humans. In ML, there are many categories of algorithms that are used to achieve the best results. In this article, we will discuss some of these categories of algorithms.

Explanatory algorithms

One of the biggest problems in machine learning is understanding how different models arrive at their final predictions. We often know the “what” but have a hard time explaining the “why”.

Explanatory algorithms help us identify variables that have a significant impact on the outcome we are interested in. These algorithms allow us to understand the relationships between the variables in the model rather than just using the model to predict the outcome.

There are several algorithms that can be used to better understand the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable for a given model.

Pattern mining algorithms

Pattern mining algorithms are a type of data mining technique that is used to identify patterns and relationships in a dataset. These algorithms can be used for a variety of purposes, such as identifying customer buying patterns in a retail context, understanding common user behavior sequences on a website/app, or finding relationships between different variables in a scientific study.

Pattern mining algorithms typically work by analyzing large datasets and finding repeated patterns or associations between variables. Once these patterns are identified, they can be used to predict future trends or outcomes, or to understand underlying relationships in the data.

Team learning

Ensemble algorithms are machine learning techniques that combine the predictions of multiple models to make a more accurate prediction than any of the individual models. There are several reasons why team algorithms can outperform traditional machine learning algorithms:

• Variety: By combining the predictions of multiple models, ensemble algorithms can capture a wider range of patterns in the data.
• Resilience: Team algorithms are typically less sensitive to noise and outliers in the data, which can lead to more stable and reliable predictions.
• Reducing overfitting: By averaging the predictions of multiple models, ensemble algorithms can reduce the tendency of individual models to overfit the training data, which can lead to improved overall generalization to new data.
• Increased Accuracy: Team algorithms have been proven to consistently outperform traditional machine learning algorithms in a variety of contexts.

Clustering

Clustering algorithms are an unsupervised learning task and are used to group data into “clusters”. Unlike supervised learning where the target variable is known, in clustering there is no target variable.

This technique is useful for finding natural patterns and trends in data and is often used during the data mining phase to better understand the data. In addition, clustering can be used to divide a dataset into different segments based on different variables. A common use of this is to segment customers or users.

Time series algorithms

Time series algorithms are techniques used to analyze time-dependent data. These algorithms take into account the time relationships between data points in a series, which is especially important when trying to predict future values.

Time series algorithms are used in a variety of business applications, such as predicting product demand, forecasting sales, or analyzing customer behavior over time. They can also be used to detect anomalies or changes in trends in data.

Similarity algorithms

Similarity algorithms are used to measure the similarity between pairs of records, nodes, data points, or text. These algorithms can be based on the distance between two data points (e.g. Euclidean distance) or on text similarity (e.g. Levenshtein algorithm).

These algorithms have a wide range of applications, but are especially useful in the context of recommendations. They can be used to identify similar items or suggest related content to users.

As you can see, the aspects of machine learning are endless, and there are various algorithms that AIs use to become smarter and perform a wide range of tasks that were previously not possible for machines.