prompter: What is the difference between machine learning and deep learning?

assistant: Machine learning and deep learning are two branches of artificial intelligence that are revolutionizing human lives. While they are closely related and often used together, there are some key differences:

- Machine learning is a broad term that covers any algorithm that can learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning algorithms build a mathematical model based on sample data, known as "training data", in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform the task. 

- Deep learning is a type of machine learning that uses neural networks with many layers of processing units for feature extraction and pattern analysis. These deep neural networks attempt to mimic how the human brain works. They learn from large amounts of data to detect patterns and insights. 

- Deep learning models are loosely inspired by the neural connections in the brain. They are fed huge amounts of data and learn by detecting patterns in the data to make predictions or decisions without relying on rules-based programming. Machine learning models can be trained on smaller amounts of data to perform specific tasks like classification or regression. 

- Deep learning models tend to outperform traditional machine learning models for complex tasks like image recognition, natural language processing, and speech recognition. However, for simpler tasks, traditional machine learning models can still work very well and are easier to train and interpret. 

- All deep learning is machine learning, but not all machine learning is deep learning. Deep learning is a specialized type of machine learning that is gaining more mainstream adoption due to the rise of big data and advancement in computing power.

In summary, machine learning is a broad field of study focused on algorithms and techniques that allow computers to learn and act without being explicitly programmed. Deep learning is a type of machine learning that uses neural networks with many layers of processing units for feature extraction and pattern analysis. Deep learning models are excellent for complex pattern recognition tasks and are behind many recent technological breakthroughs.

prompter: are there alternative types of learning?

assistant: In the field of machine learning there are several techniques that could be interpreted as different "types of learning". To name a few:

1. Main Learning Problems:
    a. **Supervised Learning**:  Applications in which the training data comprises examples of the input vectors along with their corresponding target vectors.
    b. **Unsupervised Learning**:  Applications where there is no instructor or teacher, and the algorithm must learn to make sense of the data without this guide.
    c. **Reinforcement Learning**: The application is learning what to do — how to map situations to actions—so as to maximize a numerical reward signal. The learner is not told which actions to take, but instead must discover which actions yield the most reward by trying them

2. Hybrid Learning Problems: 
    a. **Semi-Supervised Learning**: The application is given a few labeled examples and must make what we can of a large collection of unlabeled examples. Even the labels themselves may not be the oracular truths that we hope for.
    b. **Self-Supervised Learning**: The self-supervised learning framework requires only unlabeled data in order to formulate a pretext learning task such as predicting context or image rotation, for which a target objective can be computed without supervision.
    c. In **multi-instance learning**, an entire collection of examples is labeled as containing or not containing an example of a class, but the individual members of the collection are not labeled.

3. Statistical Inference:
    a. **Inductive Learning**:  Inductive reasoning refers to using specific cases to determine general outcomes, e.g. specific to general. The application is trained on deriving the function from the given data
    b. **Deductive Inference**: Deduction is the reverse of induction. If induction is going from the specific to the general, deduction is going from the general to the specific. The application is trained for deriving the values of the given function for points of interest.
    c. **Transductive Learning**: The application is trained on deriving the values of the unknown function for points of interest from the given data.

4. Learning Techniques (That can be seen as types of learning)
    a. **Multi-Task Learning**: Is a way to improve generalization by pooling the examples (which can be seen as soft constraints imposed on the parameters) arising out of several tasks.
    b. **Active Learning**: The learner adaptively or interactively collects training examples, typically by querying an oracle to request labels for new points.
    c. **Online Learning**: This technique is used when we have streaming data. Instead of waiting for all the data (a complete dataset) we update our estimates as each new data point arrives.
    d. **Transfer Learning**: In this type of learning a model is first trained on one task, then some or all of the model is used as the starting point for a (new) related task.
    e. **Ensemble Learning**:  Consists of developing a population of base learners (applications) from the training data, and then combining them to form the composite application/predictor.

assistant: There are many machine learning techniques besides deep learning. For example:

- Linear regression
- Support vector machine (SVM)
- K-means
- Decision tree
- Bayesian network
- Hidden Markov model
- Principal component analysis (PCA)

Would you like more details on these techniques?

prompter: Can you give me a decision tree of what learning technique to use based on my desired goals?

assistant: Machine learning is performed by any program that creates some model of something else from data. This is very broad and can include linear or polynomial regression, decision trees, and deep learning on artificial neural networks. Machine learning can also be when a program creates a model not just from static data, but from interaction, as is the case in many forms of reinforcement learning. Deep learning is when the model you are creating is a multi-layer artificial neural network. In the context of deep learning, these artificial neural networks are usually trained using gradient descent or a similar approach which takes into account the gradient of the loss such as the Adam optimizer. I can elaborate on any of those terms if they are confusing, but to summarize, all deep learning is machine learning, but not all machine learning is deep learning.

prompter: Are restricted Boltzmann machines an example of deep learning? Or are they a more general machine learning thing?

assistant: Yes, Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs) can serve as an example of deep learning. In particular, deep learning networks like deep belief networks can be formed by "stacking" RBMs, which in turn can be fine-tuned using gradient descent and backpropagation. Despite their deep learning applications, RBMs are indeed a more general machine learning concept as well. They have found applications in dimensionality reduction, classification, collaborative filtering, feature learning, topic modeling, and more. They can also be trained in either supervised or unsupervised ways, depending on the task.

assistant: Restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) are a type of artificial neural network that can be used for unsupervised learning. Specifically, RBMs can be used for dimensionality reduction, feature learning, and collaborative filtering. RBMs are often used in deep learning as building blocks for deep belief networks (DBNs) and deep Boltzmann machines (DBMs). Therefore, RBMs are indeed an example of deep learning.