In fact, just a few algorithms are responsible for the great majority of machine-learning applications, and we’ll take a look at them in the next few chapters. For example, consider Naïve Bayes, a learning algorithm that can be expressed as a single short equation. Given a database of patient records—their symptoms, test results, and whether or not they had some particular condition—Naïve Bayes can learn to diagnose the condition in a fraction of a second, often better than doctors who spent many years in medical school. It can also beat medical expert systems that took thousands of
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