How machines learn: Plattform Lernende Systeme presents video tutorials with students

Artificial Intelligence is on everyone's lips, and Machine Learning is an important driver of current technological development. But how do intelligent computer systems learn to solve tasks independently? An eight-part video tutorial series from Plattform Lernende Systeme conveys this in a clear way. Using catchy examples and supported by modern graphics, three students explain the basics as well as applications of machine learning in the approximately five-minute clips.

Algorithms, neural networks, supervised learning: we now encounter terms relating to Artificial Intelligence (AI) on a daily basis. But what they mean and how intelligent computer systems work is often not entirely clear. Yet AI has long been part of our everyday lives - whether in the form of navigation devices, online recommendation systems or voice assistants. In the future, it will also shape our working world. It is therefore particularly important for young people to understand how AI-supported systems work and produce results.

With the video tutorial series "How Machines Learn", Plattform Lernende Systeme offers a good introduction to the topic. In a total of eight episodes, students Maike-Elisa Müller, Jannik Kossen and Fabrizio Kuruc present important principles of Machine Learning in an easy-to-understand manner and using graphically prepared examples. The goal of this subfield of AI is to enable computer systems to independently solve tasks and problems without every single step having to be programmed by humans. Algorithms are used that draw conclusions from sample data using various learning methods and apply these to new tasks.

Enabling social dialogue on AI

With the video tutorial series, Plattform Lernende Systeme reinforces its claim to make Artificial Intelligence understandable for everyone. The network of experts on Artificial Intelligence, initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), has already published the explanatory film "A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence" and bundles free online tutorials and teaching materials on Artificial Intelligence on its Fit for AI website. "Developing a basic understanding of how Artificial Intelligence works is important in order to be able to evaluate the opportunities and challenges associated with the technology - and to actively engage in the necessary social debate on the use of AI. This is what we contribute to in the platform," says Johannes Winter, head of PLS office.

Machine Learning explained simply in eight episodes

The video tutorial series is aimed at teenagers, young adults and anyone interested. It comprises a total of eight episodes:

  • In episode one, Maike, Jannik and Fabrizio explain how Artificial Intelligence has developed since its beginnings in the 1950s and why great successes are currently being achieved through Machine Learning.
  • Episode two deals with algorithms and data and answers the question of how an algorithm learns to defeat a human in the game Tic Tac Toe.
  • Episodes three and four deal with the concept of supervised learning and the learning algorithms of regression and classification used for this purpose.
  • Episode five discusses the concept of unsupervised learning in contrast - and makes it clear that human intervention is also needed here to extract meaningful insights from mountains of data.
  • In episode six, students explain how neural networks work. These are special algorithms that can be used to recognize patterns in large amounts of data in a highly efficient manner.
  • Episode seven is devoted to the concept of reinforcement learning, in which computer programs are rewarded for successful actions and thus become better and better.
  • In episode eight, Maike, Jannik and Fabrizio address the societal implications of artificial intelligence: What opportunities and challenges does its use bring? Which applications are unproblematic, which need to be regulated?

The video tutorials were filmed with kind permission at the Technikmuseum in Berlin. Currently, episodes one to six of the videos are available on the website as well as the YouTube channel of Plattform Lernende Systeme, with more to be released soon.

Further information:

Linda Treugut / Birgit Obermeier
Press and Public Relations

Lernende Systeme – Germany's Platform for Artificial Intelligence
Managing Office | c/o acatech
Karolinenplatz 4 | 80333 Munich

T.: +49 89/52 03 09-54 /-51
M.: +49 172/144 58-47 /-39
presse@plattform-lernende-systeme.de

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