Machine learning is transforming many aspects of people's lives at an extraordinary rate, as shown by the appearance and adoption of large language models, such as chatGPT. It is (at a slower and less successful rate) showing up in physical sciences, appearing in up to 10% of new papers in some areas. Some of these papers are excellent, while many do not meet traditional scientific publishing standards.

I have been involved with ML for about 12 years in my research, and have been teaching ML in a graduate course to chemists, physicists, mathematicians, and materials scientists for about 4 years. I am not an expert in ML. This talk will be for a general scientific audience. I will explain some of the basic concepts of ML. I will try to shed some light on the rapid development of this technology and its impact on both our research and our teaching within and beyond our school.