The distinction between machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) is a puzzle to me. I'm *still* puzzled, but, I think I've got ML down now. 

>You know ML and AI are important because people Throw Around The Abbreviations (TATA). 

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Doing a bit of digging, I now realize there may be *three* things at play here: ML, AI, *and* hard code. I guess that's (HC), I dunno. Hard code consists of hard-and-fast rules that are carried out every single time in the same way.  

Machine learning seems one step above hard code. As I understand, ML is *still* hard code, but next level HC. With ML, actions can change based on *past* actions in an attempt to get better results. When ML and AI cease to *still* be hard code, that is when ML and AI start to *write* and *execute* their *own* code...oh boy! We're in trouble then.

To understand *machine learning* I had to draw up an animation so that it'd stick in my chipmunk brain. In my analysis, here's the difference between machine learning and hard code.

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#### tldr;

**HC**: Do the same thing every dang time no matter the result. It's hard coded.
**ML**: It's still hard coded, but this time is says to: (1) try it, (2) test the result, (3) if result is bad, then do something else, (4) if result is good, repeat it

To do next: figure out the difference between ML and AI.

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With thanks to @iviaxpow3r for tickling my chipmunk brain on this topic which I've never understood.


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