Machine learning is important for improving brittle early AI systems and reducing the effort required for knowledge acquisition. There are two main types of machine learning - supervised learning, where a system is provided examples and feedback to learn a task, and unsupervised learning, where patterns are identified without labeled examples. Popular supervised learning methods include neural networks, Bayesian classifiers, decision trees, and linear regression, which aim to learn functions or classify inputs. Bayesian learning estimates probabilities to classify inputs, while neural networks can perform non-linear regression through backpropagation.