What is the Main Difference between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning?
The technology has updated a lot over the last two decades, and it keeps evolving with time and the

The technology has updated a lot over the last two decades, and it keeps evolving with time and the most common terms that have been used in the era of innovation and technology are Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning. Both terms are very close to each other, but that does not mean they are similar; they have their own work and meaning. People often get confused between them, so knowing the difference between artificial intelligence and machine learning is important to avoid confusion and to use them in their true forms. We also need to see AI vs ML examples to understand the work better.
What are Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning?
Artificial Intelligence:
AI is a field of computer science that mainly focuses on systems that are capable of doing tasks that usually require human intelligence. They are even better than humans in many tasks and in Human like decision making. The tasks can be like problem-solving, researching, and decision making. Some examples of artificial intelligence applications are ChatGPT, virtual assistants like Siri, and some fraud detection systems. The AI is something which everyone is aware of, and is now becoming a topic of concern for many people too.
Machine Learning:
Machine learning is a part of AI. It helps the computer in learning data on its own. It doesn’t follow the fixed rules; it uses the algorithm to find the patterns, learn from them, and then make predictions. Some people think it as a another form of AI but the one who works little differently. It do all the work based on given data, which is alos very similar to the few forms of AI we see these days. Some examples of it are engines used by Netflix, random forests, spam detection, and neural networks.
Understanding the meaning of both words is important before knowing the real difference between artificial intelligence and machine learning and what role they play.
The Core Difference between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Here is the main difference between AI and ML in real life:-
AI is the bigger picture: it focuses on building intelligent artificial intelligence applications and systems that can simulate Human like decision making. In other words, you can say that it’s science that makes machines intelligent.
ML is like a subset of AI: it mainly deals with creating models that can learn from data and can improve them automatically. This is like a method of training machines using data.
Both of these words do not differ much from each other, but the thing which makes them different is big enough to put both things in a completely different category.
Here are some AI and ML in real life examples, which will help you understand the differences between artificial intelligence and machine learning:
- ML example: A spam filter that analyses more than a thousand emails to detect the junk ones.
- AI example: A bot game player in any game that uses strategies to play like a real human player.
The Bottom Line
AI and ML in real life play a critical role in many industries. Knowing the difference between artificial intelligence and machine learning is important for students, professionals, and business owners who are in the AI world. AI is a bigger picture whose focus is more towards building a human like intelligence, and on the other side, ML is more about something which focuses on training the machine through data. AI is something of which almost everyone is aware, but the term ML, or machine learning, is something people are familiar with now and understand how it differs from normal online intelligence.