As you learned, the GPS offers different routes to choose from. Machine learning leaves room for humans to make the final decision. You, or an expert, can choose which route to take based on possible outcomes and personal experience.

Consider how a machine learning system might work with the medical question you considered previously. As a doctor considers how to treat a cancer patient, the AI ingests your entire medical record plus every research paper about this cancer published in the last few years. This takes a few seconds. But the AI doesn’t say, “Do this” or “Do that”. That would be a deterministic solution that cuts the doctor and patient out of the decision.

Instead, the AI provides a probabilistic statement such as, “There’s a 92% chance that this treatment will work, and an 87% chance that this other treatment will work. Here is what would be involved in conducting each treatment option.” Now the doctor can consult with you and together you make the choice. In other words, AI, the doctor, and you have formed a partnership in which machines predict but humans judge!