Machine learning: the power and promise of computers that learn by example

What is the potential of machine learning over the next 5-10 years? And how can we develop this technology in a way that benefits everyone?

The Royal Society’s machine learning project has been investigating these questions, and this report sets out the actions needed to maintain the UK’s role in advancing this technology while ensuring careful stewardship of its development.

Machine learning is a form of artificial intelligence that allows computer systems to learn from examples, data, and experience. Through enabling computers to perform specific tasks intelligently, machine learning systems can carry out complex processes by learning from data, rather than following pre-programmed rules.

Recent years have seen exciting advances in machine learning, which have raised its capabilities across a suite of applications. Many people now interact with systems based on machine learning every day, for example in image recognition systems, such as those used on social media; voice recognition systems, used by virtual personal assistants; and recommender systems, such as those used by online retailers. As the field develops further, machine learning promises to support potentially transformative advances in a range of areas, and the social and economic opportunities which follow are significant.

The Royal Society’s programme of work on machine learning has been investigating the potential of this technology over the next 5-10 years, and the barriers to realising that potential.