What is Supervised Learning?

• This typ of learning comes from being given the right answers (given an input x, the answer should be y)
• Once the model has been shown enough of this data, it can predict the outcome(y) on its own
• Supervised learning is the dominant form of machine learning today, responsible for an estimated 99% of the economic value created by ML.

Real-World Applications

Online advertising is currently the most lucrative application, platforms predict which ads you'll click on, and each click generates revenue.

Example: Housing Price Prediction

Given data on house sizes (square feet) and their sale prices, you can train a model to predict prices for new houses.

The algorithm might fit:

• A straight line to the data (simpler)
• A curve (more complex, potentially more accurate)

Choosing the right function to fit is a key skill covered in ML courses.

Two Types of Supervised Learning

1. Regression — predicting a continuous number from infinitely many possibilities (e.g., house prices: $150,000, $183,000, etc.)
2. Classification — predicting a category from a discrete set of options

Classification

Classification is the second major type of supervised learning. Unlike regression, which predicts a number from infinite possibilities, classification predicts discrete categories from a limited set of outputs.

Example: Breast Cancer Detection