What Is Supervised Learning?

Supervised learning is when a computer learns with an answer key, a bit like a student studying with flashcards.

Imagine it like this: Flashcards with a picture on the front and the correct answer on the back. You look at the picture, you guess, then you flip the card to check. If you're wrong, you learn. Do this often enough and you become really good — even on cards you've never seen!

Examples:

• Teaching a computer to sort emails into "spam" or "not spam"
• Teaching a computer to guess the price of a house from its size and location

So? "Supervised" just means the computer always has the right answers while it trains — that's what lets it learn quickly and well.