Types of Machine Learning

Last Updated : 07 Jan, 2025

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.

In this article, we will explore the various types of machine

learning algorithms that are important for future requirements.
Machine learning is generally a training system to learn from past
experiences and improve performance over time. Machine learning
helps to predict massive amounts of data. It helps to deliver fast
and accurate results to get profitable opportunities.

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. Reinforcement Learning
Additionally, there is a more specific category called semi-
supervised learning, which combines elements of both supervised
and unsupervised learning.

Types of Machine 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. In Supervised Learning algorithms learn to map
points between inputs and correct outputs. It has both training and
validation datasets labelled.
 Supervised Learning

Let’s understand it with the help of an example.

Example: Consider a scenario where you have to build an image

Dataclassifier to differentiate
Science IBM Certification between
Data Science Datacats and
Science dogs.Data
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Analysis theVisualiza
datasets of dogs and cats labelled images to the algorithm, the
machine will learn to classify between a dog or a cat from these
labeled 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
Classificationdeals 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 labeled 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 behavior, 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 Unsupervised learning is a type of machine

learning technique in which an algorithm discovers patterns and
relationships using unlabeled data. Unlike supervised learning,
unsupervised learning doesn’t involve providing the algorithm with
labeled 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.

Unsupervised Learning

Let’s understand it with the help of an example.

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 behavior
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 labeled
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 labeled data and reduces the effort of data
labeling.

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.
It has techniques such as autoencoders and dimensionality
reduction that can be used to extract meaningful features from
raw data.

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.
Recommendation systems: Suggest products, movies, or
content to users based on their historical behavior or
preferences.
 Topic modeling: Discover latent topics within a collection of
documents.
Density estimation: Estimate the probability density function of
data.
Image and video compression: Reduce the amount of storage
required for multimedia content.
Data preprocessing: Help with data preprocessing tasks such
as data cleaning, imputation of missing values, and data scaling.
Market basket analysis: Discover associations between
products.
Genomic data analysis: Identify patterns or group genes with
similar expression profiles.
Image segmentation: Segment images into meaningful regions.
Community detection in social networks: Identify communities
or groups of individuals with similar interests or connections.
Customer behavior analysis: Uncover patterns and insights for
better marketing and product recommendations.
Content recommendation: Classify and tag content to make it
easier to recommend similar items to users.
Exploratory data analysis (EDA): Explore data and gain
insights before defining specific tasks.

3. Reinforcement Machine Learning

Reinforcement machine learningalgorithm 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 behavior 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.

Here are some of most common reinforcement learning algorithms:

Q-learning: Q-learning is a model-free RL algorithm that learns

a Q-function, which maps states to actions. The Q-function
estimates the expected reward of taking a particular action in a
given state.
SARSA (State-Action-Reward-State-Action): SARSA is
another model-free RL algorithm that learns a Q-function.
However, unlike Q-learning, SARSA updates the Q-function for
the action that was actually taken, rather than the optimal
action.
Deep Q-learning: Deep Q-learning is a combination of Q-
learning and deep learning. Deep Q-learning uses a neural
network to represent the Q-function, which allows it to learn
complex relationships between states and actions.
 Reinforcement Machine Learning

Let’s understand it with the help of examples.

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.
Reinforcement Learning also finds applications in which they learn
to perform tasks by interacting with their surroundings.
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 behavior.
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

behavior.
Discourages the agent from repeating the behavior.
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 a 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 to 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.

Semi-Supervised Learning: Supervised + Unsupervised

Learning

Semi-Supervised learningis 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 labeled data is costly, time-consuming, or
resource-intensive. This approach is useful when the dataset is
expensive and time-consuming. Semi-supervised learning is
chosen when labeled data requires skills and relevant resources in
order to train or learn from it.

We use these techniques when we are dealing with data that is a

little bit labeled and the rest large portion of it is unlabeled. 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 labeled.
 Semi-Supervised Learning

Let’s understand it with the help of an example.

Example: Consider that we are building a language translation

model, having labeled translations for every sentence pair can be
resources intensive. It allows the models to learn from labeled and
unlabeled sentence pairs, making them more accurate. This
technique has led to significant improvements in the quality of
machine translation services.
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: This approach uses a

graph to represent the relationships between the data
points. The graph is then used to propagate labels from the
labeled data points to the unlabeled data points.
Label propagation: This approach iteratively propagates labels
from the labeled data points to the unlabeled data
points, based on the similarities between the data points.
 Co-training: This approach trains two different machine
learning models on different subsets of the unlabeled data. The
two models are then used to label each other’s predictions.
Self-training: This approach trains a machine learning model on
the labeled data and then uses the model to predict labels for
the unlabeled data. The model is then retrained on the labeled
data and the predicted labels for the unlabeled data.
Generative adversarial networks (GANs): GANs are a type of
deep learning algorithm that can be used to generate synthetic
data. GANs can be used to generate unlabeled data for semi-
supervised learning by training two neural networks, a
generator and a discriminator.

Advantages of Semi- Supervised Machine Learning

It leads to better generalization as compared to supervised
learning, as it takes both labeled and unlabeled 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 labeled data that might not always be
available or easy to obtain.
The unlabeled 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 labeled images
with a larger set of unlabeled images.
 Natural Language Processing (NLP): Enhance the performance
of language models and classifiers by combining a small set of
labeled text data with a vast amount of unlabeled text.
Speech Recognition: Improve the accuracy of speech
recognition by leveraging a limited amount of transcribed
speech data and a more extensive set of unlabeled audio.
Recommendation Systems: Improve the accuracy of
personalized recommendations by supplementing a sparse set
of user-item interactions (labeled data) with a wealth of
unlabeled user behavior data.
Healthcare and Medical Imaging: Enhance medical image
analysis by utilizing a small set of labeled medical images
alongside a larger set of unlabeled images.

Must check, our detailed article on: Machine Learning

Algorithms

Conclusion

In conclusion, each type of machine learning serves its own

purpose and contributes to the overall role in development of
enhanced data prediction capabilities, and it has the potential to
change various industries like Data Science. It helps deal with
massive data production and management of the datasets.

Types of Machine Learning – FAQs

1. What are the challenges faced in supervised learning?

 Some of the challenges faced in supervised learning mainly
include addressing class imbalances, high-quality labeled
data, and avoiding overfitting where models perform badly
on real-time data.

2. Where can we apply supervised learning?

Supervised learning is commonly used for tasks like

analysing spam emails, image recognition, and sentiment
analysis.

3. What does the future of machine learning outlook look

like?

Machine learning as a future outlook may work in areas like

weather or climate analysis, healthcare systems, and
autonomous modelling.

4. What are the different types of machine learning?

There are three main types of machine learning:

Supervised learning
Unsupervised learning
Reinforcement learning
5. What are the most common machine learning
algorithms?

Some of the most common machine learning algorithms

include:

Linear regression
Logistic regression
Support vector machines (SVMs)
K-nearest neighbors (KNN)
Decision trees
Random forests
Artificial Neural networks

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