Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that allows computers to learn and make predictions or decisions based on data, without being explicitly programmed to do so. In other words, instead of telling a computer what to do, we give it data and let it find patterns and relationships within that data on its own. This allows machines to learn from experience, improve their performance over time, and make more accurate predictions or decisions. Machine learning is used in many different applications, from speech recognition and natural language processing to image recognition and self-driving cars.