Artificial intelligence (AI) software that modifies its own algorithms in order to become more intelligent and improve future results. Machine learning is used in many areas, including search engines, medical diagnosis, ad serving, spam filtering, sales forecasting, as well as computer vision, which is essentially pattern recognition (face, handwriting, voice, etc.).
Unlike the static logic (if this - do that) in regular programs, machine learning continues to refine its logic over time and with enough samples so that the next operation is more effective than the last. Today's virtual assistants are often a combination of machine learning, which relies on neural networks, and "handcrafting," which provides predefined frameworks for responses. See
neural network,
deep learning and
computer vision.