Machine Learning as an Experimental Science

Machine learning is a scientific discipline and, like the fields of AI and computer science, has both theoretical and empirical aspects. Although recent progress has occurred on the theoretical front (see Machine Learning, volume 2, number 4), most learning algorithms are too complex for formal analysis. Thus, the field promises to have a significant empirical component for the foreseeable future. And unlike some empirical sciences, machine learning is fortunate enough to have experimental control over a wide range of factors, making it more akin to physics and chemistry than astronomy or sociology.