John Langford on Vowpal Wabbit, Used by MSN, and Machine Learning in Industry

In this week's podcast QCon chair Wesley Reisz talks to Machine learning research scientist John Langford. Topics include his Machine Learning system Vowpal Wabbit, designed to be very efficient and incorporating some of the latest algorithms in the space. Vowpal Wabbit is used for news personalisation on MSN. They also discuss how to get started in the field and it’s shift from academic research to industry use.

Why listen to this podcast:

- Vowpal Wabbit is a ML system that attempts to incorporate some of the latest machine learning algorithms.
- How to learn ML: take a class or two, get accustomed with learning theory and practice.
- ML has moved from the research field into the industry, 4 out of 9 ICML tutorials coming from the industry.
- It’s hard to predict when you have enough data.
- AlphaGo is a milestone in artificial intelligence. It uses reinforcement learning, deep learning and existing moves played by Go masters.
- Deep Learning is currently a disruptive technology in areas such a vision or speech recognition.
- What’s trendy: Neural Networks, Reinforcement and Contextual Learning.
- Machine Learning is being commoditized.


How to Approach Machine Learning

6m:12s To start learning Machine Learning, Langford recommends taking a class or two, mentioning the course by Andrew Ng and another course by Yaser S. Abu-Mostafa.
6m:50s It is recommended to get accustomed with learning theory to avoid some of the rookie's mistakes.