In popular culture and the press, leaps in machine learning and artificial intelligence are typically met with two kinds of reactions: awe or terror. Both imply that these systems are so far beyond our comprehension that they are likely either to destroy us (by taking most of our jobs, for example) or catapult us into a dazzling, utopian future.In fact, says Andrew McAfee, after a long period of stagnation, machine-learning has made inspiring leaps in recent years, paving the way not for our robot overlords, but for intelligent machine colleagues to replace the slavishly literal systems that preceded them.Understand the history of machine learningHistorically, coders have told computers exactly what to do through explicit, detailed instructions.Machine learning is the concept of getting computers to learn things on their own, without human programming.Until recently, there was little success for machine learning.Raise your game with machinesThe success of AlphaGo has shed light on t...