A Caricature of a Contrast

Statistical inference is about using large samples to draw inferences about a small number of parameters of an “objective” probability distribution
- Applies to inherently probabilistic phenomena
- Don’t use statistics unless you have “enough data”
- Don’t try to estimate too many things at once or test too many hypotheses at once
Machine learning is about using small samples to learn the rules characterizing a phenomenon
- Applies to inherently deterministic phenomena
- Not enough data to use statistics
- Too many parameters (rules) to use statistics