Supervised Learning

What is Supervised Learning?

Imagine a student, and his teacher gives him lots of math problems with their answers. The teacher says: “Practice with these! If you learn well, you’ll be able to solve new problems all by yourself!”

That’s what Supervised Learning is.

The student = the computer (or AI).
The teacher = the dataset (examples with correct answers).
The math problems with answers = training data.

Simple Definition:

Supervised Learning is when a computer learns from examples that already have the right answers. Then, it uses that learning to solve new problems by itself.

Example 1: Learning Fruits by Size and Color

Let’s say a teacher teaching a robot to recognize fruits.

Teacher gives a table like this:

Color Size Fruit
Red Big Apple
Yellow Long Banana
Green Small Grape

Here, “Color” and “Size” are like the clues (input), and “Fruit” is the answer (output).

After seeing many such examples, the robot learns:

  • Red + Big = Apple
  • Yellow + Long = Banana

Now, when teacher shows it Green + Small, it says: “That must be a Grape!”

Example 2: Game Score Prediction

Let’s say someone is playing a video game and the record chart is:

Time Played (mins) Enemies Defeated Score
10 5 200
20 10 400
15 7 300

The computer learns the pattern: more time and more enemies = higher score.

Now, if he plays for 18 minutes and defeat 8 enemies, the computer guesses your score!

Example 3: Pet Recognition (Images)

The computer is shown :

  • Lots of pictures of cats labeled “Cat”
  • Lots of pictures of dogs labeled “Dog”

Then, when given it a new picture (without label), it says:

“Hmm… I think it’s a Cat!”

Supervised Learning – Supervised Learning with Simple Python